


The Witch and Her Black Cat

by Ladynodrinette



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien says it's a no, Alya is a shapeshift fox, But super obvious, F/M, Gabriel wants Adrien to get married, He makes a weird deal with him, Newspaper anchor!Alya, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Plot Twist, Prince!Adrien, Royal guard!Nino, Witch!Marinette, also some angst, but not a lot of angst, i'll be adding them when i add chapters, yup
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2020-06-27 03:42:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19782535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladynodrinette/pseuds/Ladynodrinette
Summary: Adrien is the kingdom's prince and his father decides it's time for him to settle down. He doesn't want to, so he sets up a deal with his father that if anybody catches his black cat Plagg, he would take their hand in marriage. The cat is seemingly impossible to catch, except for the fact that it likes to hang out at Marinette's cottage where she brews potions as a witch. While everyone wants to catch the cat and steal the ring it carries, Marinette has the cat in arms reach, but will she take advantage of it?





	1. Spells and shit

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Adrien is undoubtedly the kingdom's prince, in every way one could be a prince. He walks in long robes which touch the ground, keeps his head high and bows deeply to his father. He's respectful towards everybody (even if his father tells him servants don't need the amount of respect he is willing to give them) and gets adequate respect back. He's kind towards all, no matter what. He listens to everything he is told to do and not to do, he makes sure everything is as perfect as can be and he _never_ complains.

Not when his father locked the castle's gate when he was 12, only letting him come out on special occasions, followed by at least 25 armour-clad guards by his side.

Not when he was forbidden from going to the public school when his knight, Nino, told him he used to attend it, when he was told he would be taught everything he needs to know right there, in the comfort (anguish) of the castle.

Not when he was forced to learn how to speak 8 languages just in case he ever comes in contact with their rulers (as if they wouldn't know the great's Netswa's mother tongue).

Not when, after turning 13, he was forced to be guarded by Nino Lahiffe, the neighbouring's country's younger prince who was 12 years older than him (though he now regrets not wanting that in the past).

But in this very moment, kneeling in front of his father with his head bowed low, he wants to protest. He wants to get up, throw his hands in the air and _scream_. Still, he stays there unmoving processing his father's words.

_Your coronation time's nearing, Adrien. The royal counsellor and letter carrier have already looked into the possible suitors._

He couldn't possibly accept this, marrying somebody he has never seen in his life, not only would that be awful for himself, but some pour soul of a woman would be forced into becoming the country's queen, looked at as a concubine and accepted to succumb to his wishes.

So, for the first time since he was 8, he lifts his head and meets the king's eyes. He regrets his decision immediately and bows down again.

"Father-"

"Your highness,“ he corrects.

"Your Highness, I...“, he took a deep breath readying himself for the biggest outburst of his life.

"I refuse.“

He heard rustling and guessed that his father got up from his seat and is looking at him differently than moments prior. And by differently he means extremely and utterly angry.

"What?“ his father asked, with a surprisingly calm (yet painted with distress) voice.

"I refuse to be wed off, I am fine ruling the kingdom on my own.“

"Don't act unfitting of a prince,“ Adrien shivered but stayed still. "you are well aware of the fact that this isn't for you to be able to rule alongside somebody. This kingdom has been ruled by blood and blood only for centuries and as my only heir you have to make sure you have at least one male heir.“

Adrien raised his head from its bow, noticing his father was standing a mere metre in front of him, but never raised his eyes higher than his father's chest. He knew that his father was right, the tradition was strict to the point his father had 20 concubines just to get one of them to give birth, leaving him as an only son, and his mother died right after giving birth. However, a glimmer of hope was in his head that he could somehow take a more positive turn on the situation.

"Then how about we make a deal?“

...

"There's no way you got the king to agree to that!“ Nino said looking at the prince's laying frame on his bed.

"Somehow, I did. I don't know how, though.“

His guard laughed and it made Adrien smile a little too.

"What's the catch?“ Adrien looked at him with his eyes narrowed. "Oh come on, it's the king there's got to be a catch!“

Adrien smiled fully at that, knowing it was true.

"No wizards, no witches and no men. “

"Okay the men part is obvious, but what's wrong with wizards and witches.“

"He thinks somebody could take advantage of me that way, get me in a spell and do whatever they want me to do and rule the kingdom in my place.“

"Oh.“

"Yeah, _oh_.“ Adrien got up and looked through the window.

"So at least 2 hours a day?“

"At least 2 hours a day.“

...

When the whole town of Mii started buzzing, Marinette knew something had to be up. She put on her black cape and placed the red hood over her head before heading towards the main square. The square was packed, but instead of the usual crowd gathering around the stalls of the bazaar, they were surrounding three men who stood in the middle.

Two men were dressed in armour, each holding a spear and the smaller man in the middle was dressed in red, lined with gold, carrying a large roll of paper. As she was looking at them, she noticed her best friend standing behind them, holding a stylus and a wax tablet and grinning excitedly. She quickly walked over to her friend, her hood shielding her from the sun.

"What's happening?“

"They are here from the palace! They are going to make an announcement any moment now!“

"What kind of-" Marinette attempted to ask but her voice was cut by the little man's coughing. The whole square went quiet instantly. The air was so silent, the only thing that could be heard was the unrolling of paper and the grand clock ticking.

"We are here to bring an announcement from the castle! The king has decided that it is time for the prince to find a maiden under the age of 26 to be his lawfully wedded wife and serve as queen in due time. For the next year, or longer if nobody happens to accomplish the task required, the prince's black cat, Plagg will be roaming the area within 15 kilometres of the king's property, for 2 hours a day, wearing a golden bell with the family seal on it. Within the bell, a diamond ring is hidden and whoever manages to maintain the ring will become the future king's wife. However, if any harm is brought to the cat, your punishment will be taken seriously and only decided by the king. Wizards, witches and men aren't allowed to participate. The king wishes you all good luck.“

With the words spilt, the three men were gone and the square was buzzing again. Everyone seemed to be excited, imagining marrying off their daughter to the kingdom's prince just by doing such a simple thing as catching a cat would be. But even if the excitement was more prominent in the air, a couple of grunts of irritation could be heard and Marinette shared the same sentiment.

Considering the fact that there were only 2 towns within the 15-kilometre range from the kingdom's property, this meant the town would be buzzing with people. The town of Mii was fairly large, usually attracting visitors, but only a speck of people lived there for the entire year and Marinette liked to enjoy a little bit of peace. Not that she got a lot, since the king's maids often came to get shopping done in the town, but this would make a vast difference.

"Why couldn't have they let me known this would have been amazing newspaper material!“

Marinette giggled at her friend's frustration and placed a hand on her shoulder: "You could get them printed right now and get them delivered tomorrow?“

"My best friend's a genius!“ Alya yelled and hugged her before running off yelling she would stop by tomorrow night for tea.

Marinette walked through the streets back on the way to her cottage. Marrying a prince seemed like an unreachable dream in her head, so she forced herself to stop thinking about it. Her mind still drifted off to an image of a handsome prince and she was finally able to get the thoughts away when she stepped through the entrance of her home and her flowers began singing their usual tune.

Her black cat, Tikki curled around her legs with her black and red tail and she giggled. She crouched down to pet its spine and began talking as she usually did: "Hi, Tikki, you finally woke up?“

The cat nuzzled its head in her palm and it made Marinette's grin go wider.

"The whole town is buzzing with a competition to get to be the prince's bride, y' know?“

She got up and walked to her work station looking at the black painted circle where she had written her new orders with chalk. She sighed and started to brew a new Attraction Potion a recent husband whose wife was planning to divorce him requested.

She looked over at Tikki, the cat was sprawled over the seating area's bench, staring at her.

"The whole town's excitement won't help your beauty sleep, Tikki.“

The cat yawned and Marinette turned around and mumbled, more to herself than Tikki; "Witches aren't supposed to enter through.“

...

"God,“ Adrien grunted as he lied down on the grass, drenched in sweat.

"What's got you so tired, prince boy?“ Nino teased.

"Nino, shut up or I will make you,“ he tried to sound threatening but it only made Nino laugh more. "As if you don't know.“

Nino laughed until tears were coming out of the corners of his eyes and he couldn't contain it even as he continued to speak: "Seriously you'd expect they would leave a poor cat alone not chase it around like maniacs, they are all acting like you're some amazing prize to be won.“

"They all just wish to have the kingdom's money, that's it, it isn't closely related to me. I'm starting to think this wasn't a good idea after all.“

"Just now?“ Nino was still laughing.

"Oh, buzz off.“

"Come on, let's get to practice your sword a little bit more before you have to head off _again_.“

Adrien got up and kicked Nino in the shin with his boot.

...

Two weeks after the announcement Marinette heard a bell, but it was different than the sound her door let out when a new customer came in. When she turned around, a black cat with green eyes and a bell around its neck stared back into her eyes.

_Oh._

The cat was frozen in place at the sight and attempted to walk back but Marinette quickly noticed its fear.

"It's alright, you're in no danger here.“

The cat tilted its head to the right.

"Let me help you calm down.“

Marinette walked over to the stone wall which was right when looking from the entrance of the home where the baby's breath grew out. She dug her hands deep into her cape and pulled out some sort of glass bottle. She unclasped the bottle, spilt some of the liquid onto her palm and then sprinkled some on top of the baby's breath. Instantly, a soft melody came out and she felt her muscles relax.

When she turned around, the cat was no longer in front of the door but was seated on a red cushion on the floor of the seating area. She smiled and walked over, crouching down three metres away from it. The cat was scared of her and she certainly wasn't going to force it into any sort of physical contact as much as she wanted to pet it and jingle its bell.

"You don't have to be scared here, there's a magical border around the cottage that prevents anyone with bad intentions from entering it so nobody will be able to harm you here, and I certainly don't have the will to become the prince's bride, ok?“

The cat nodded its head slightly and then froze in position again.

"You're awfully smart for a cat aren't you?“ Marinette smiled and got up to her feet to get back to work.

...

It had been a couple of days since the cat came and when it came back again, it was greeted by the bundle of affection that was Alya. However, Marinette noticed very quickly that her friend was going to attack the cat with some not-requested pets and how much the cat was ready to escape.

She grabbed her best friend by the forearm and told her to stop.

"What? Why?“

"That's the prince's cat, he probably came for some peace after an hour of running around and you're going to make his only safe place unsafe.“

"Wait that's the prince's-" she looked over to the cat, " _oh_.“

"What do you mean by a safe place? Did it come here before?“

"Yeah, it did. Was really scared but then fell asleep right over there at the red cushion, it was adorable,“ she looked over at the cat which was staring at the red cushion at its mention and smiled.

She crouched down in front of it, but not too close and said: "You can go and sit on it it's totally fine.“

The cat headed over to the cushion and fell asleep as soon at its head hit the red cushion's surface.

"Poor kitty must be tired,“ Alya said. "Should I mention it in the newspaper that it shouldn't be touched maybe it'll help a little?“

"I highly doubt it, but it's very sweet of you to try, though. It's the prince's cat it isn't going to be left alone until somebody gets the ring. I think forcing a decision like that on a cat was incredibly stupid.“

"True.“

...

After that, the cat seemed to enter the space of the red and black cottage quite often, laying on the cushion and falling asleep. Marinette realised she was looking forward to its arrival and realised she grew fond of the cat much too quickly. When she thought about the fact that it's only been a month since the competition started and only two weeks since it started coming in the cottage, she dreaded the fact that it could end very quickly.

Even though the town always talked about how impossible the cat was to catch, she found it funny that it slept only 8 metres away from her every single day and that she could become the prince's bride by taking the ring when it was asleep. Not to mention the fact that the whole town reeked of cat food since every house with a maiden wanted to find a way to get it close so they could take the ring.

The cat also got her own cat's old age of her mind, since Tikki was her parents' cat before she was born and she had been keeping it ever since they died, she knew she would live a year more, two tops. Speaking of Tikki, she hasn't met Plagg yet has she?

She turned around to where Plagg was sleeping and noticed that Tikki came downstairs.

"Hi, Tikki, did you sleep well?“

The cat grunted in response and headed over to the red cushion and stopped before noticing Plagg. She looked back over to her owner in silent question.

"Tikki, that's Plagg, he comes by every day.“ The cat kept staring at Plagg's sleeping form.

"Oh, baby, I know that's your cushion, I'll sew another one by tomorrow and it'll be his new one, okay?“

She grabbed the cat into her lap and began walking towards the back area. "Let's get you something to eat, hmm?“

...

Alya and Marinette were staring down fondly at Tikki and Plagg asleep on cushions. Plagg was sleeping on the previous red one and Tikki lied awake on the black on right next to it with her tail protectively laid on top of Plagg's smaller frame.

"It's funny how Tikki wouldn't sleep on anything other than my bed and the red cushion but now that Plagg's sleeping on it it doesn't bother her.“

"Remember how she used to throw you out of bed?“ Alya giggled.

"Of course I do, that's why I had to make the freaking cushion!“

They were both giggling when the entrance bell ringed and a suited-up man entered.

"Hello, excuse me, is Plagg here by any chance?“

Marinette hadn't even realised she sounded angry until the words left her mouth: "And you are?“

"Oh, pardon me for being rude, I'm the prince's guard, I was sent here to pick up Plagg“

Marinette nodded then pointed with her head: "He's right there, he's been asleep for an hour now.“

Nino looked over at Plagg and cooed: "Thanks for keeping him safe.“

"No need to thank me, I enjoy holding him here. But please don't tell people he likes to stay here.“

"Why not?“

"I may or may not have grown fond of him, but I also don't want the entire town to disturb him. How'd you even know he stays here?“

"Let's just say somebody always keeps an eye on this cat.“

Nino was ready to walk over to the cats when he noticed Tikki's tail. Marinette was quick on her feet, getting Tikki in her lap as Nino took Plagg.

When Nino walked away with a goodbye Alya slapped Marinette on the shoulder.

"Ow! Where did that-"

"Oh, shush, did you see that hottie?“

"Where?“ Marinette gave her a look of disbelief.

“The prince's guard!“ Alya was practically screaming.

"I mean, I guess.“

"What do you mean, you guess?! Totally gonna stalk him right now,“ Alya said as she pulled on her coat.

"Come back and tell me what you find out.“

"You know it, girl,“ Alya all but ran out and Marinette laughed already missing the cat's presence.

...

It was a peaceful day when a hooded man entered her cottage. His cape was long and light green and when he took off his hood she almost dropped the glass potion she was holding. He had the most gorgeous blonde locks she had ever since, including the girl from the town whose hair was down to her hips and when their eyes met she practically melted from his eyes alone.

"Hello,“ he waved and came closer after hanging his cape.

"H-hi,“ she cursed herself for entering, she was never this affected by guys, what was so different about this one? And she was certain he didn't have an Affection Potion on.

"How may I help you?“

"This is gonna sound stupid, but..“ he hesitated.

"Oh, no need to feel embarrassed I get at least 12 of those a day.“

The guy's demeanour calmed and he began speaking: "My father has been on edge and angry at me lately and I was wondering if you had something to help?“

"I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to do anything that plays with emotion.“

His face went red and he waved his hands; "No, no I wasn't thinking of such a thing at all. Just something to help me calm him down so we can have a normal conversation.“

His face went even redder: "God, I'm sorry, this is really stupid isn't it.“

Marinette giggled: "It's fine, 15 minutes ago somebody came asking for a potion that would make their pubic hair green so you're good.“

The guy chuckled and his redness finally seemed to die down.

She went over to the cabinet behind the counter and grabbed a glass bottle filled with a light blue liquid.

"I think this should work as long as you have some flowers nearby,“ she walked over to the baby's breath and sprinkled some liquid over it. "You just sprinkle a couple of drops and it lets out a tune that makes our muscles relax, trust me it works wonders with angry customers.“

"Honestly, that sounds great, and I'm sorry but my father hates hearing any sort of music, as much as that tune is lovely.“

"There's no need to apologise, of course, you're not going to pay for something that you know wouldn't work. Tell you what, I could make a milder version of this potion by Monday and you could slip a couple of drops into your father's tea and it would calm him right away.“

Marinette knew she could simply mix a little bit of this bottle's liquid with a little lavender oil from her bottom drawer, but something about him made her want to see him again so she didn't mention it.

"That'd be amazing, thank you.“

"No problem, the potion should last about 30 minutes but I'll tell you the details when you come back,“ she walked back to the counter and got out a small piece of paper and began writing on it.

"Thank you very much, do you take payment before or after picking up an order?“

Marinette pointed to a black circle on the red wall on which with white letter stood: ' _When ordering something, you pay before picking the product up_ ' and looked at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't-" his face went red and she giggled.

"It's fine, I was just teasing you, you're cute when you're flustered,“ she said and regretted it immediately since the words left her mouth before she had time to think about them.

She didn't even look at his reaction before she said: "That would be 23 lymos, please.“

She dipped her store's stamp in ink and stamped it on the piece of paper and put it on the counter before taking his one-hundred lymos bill. She went over to the cash box but he was already at the door dressing into his cape before she had time to react.

"Wait, your change-"

"Keep it,“ he smiled and put on his hood.

"This is too much, I can't-"

"It's fine, like I could ever take change from such a pretty girl.“

With those words the bell rung and Marinette fell on her knees, eyes wide and face flushed.

What was that?

...

"Oh God Alya he was super hot!“

"Yeah, I know you told me like 20 times already,“ Alya teased.

"I have _not_. Even if I did it wouldn't even be too much for how hot he is! I can't wait for Monday already,“ she said holding out the 'y' unnecessarily long.

She looked over at Plagg who seemed to be wide awake unlike his usual behaviour, and not only that he was staring back at her with wide eyes.

"You hungry, kitty?“

He shook his head and ran out of the door.

"They must feed him well at the castle," Alya commented.

"I hope so.“

...

Even as Plagg being at the cottage every day became a regular thing, Marinette still couldn't express her affection properly. The cat seemed to hate personal contact and Marinette didn't want to cross any boundaries with it so she stopped herself whenever she wanted to pet it. However, a certain drunk customer came in requesting a Love Potion and having a drunk fit at Marinette for not being able to give him one.

"Sir, I've told you already, it's illegal to do anything with potions that mess with emotions!“

He tackled her against the counter and her back hurt from the stone. "Well, can you make one?!“

"I can't.“

"Do you know how to make one?!“

"Y-yes,“ she said and tears were running down her cheeks out of fear.

Before the man could say anything he let out a yelp of pain. When Marinette looked down, she saw Plagg biting into the man's ankle until blood came out. The man fell back on his behind and looked at her with anger before getting up on his feet.

The alcohol in his body made him stumble and he fell again and let out a string of curses: "Fucking whore, stupid witch, fuckin' spells and shit.“

He smashed her vase on the way towards the door on purpose and Marinette fell on the floor against the counter when he exited through the door. She mumbled something and the door closed and locked itself and she began crying.

Plagg crawled over to her lap and wrapped its tail around her waist. He nudged his nose along her arm and didn't stop until she began petting him.

"Thank you, Plagg.“


	2. Castle boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to let you know, I've added some additional tags and will be adding more as the story progresses! I've also changed the title from the last one since the whole Chapter 1: Chapter 1 thing was annoying me and will be giving chapters titles from now on! Hope you like this one!

When Monday morning came, Marinette couldn't help but feel excited. Her gaze was constantly distracted by the glass bottle that laid on the counter. She'd tied a red ribbon with black dots around the bottle for decoration, which may have been a usual habit when it came to serving customers, but she knew she'd spent way too many tries tying that bow to absolute perfection.

A workday has never passed slower and as much as she told herself that the handsome boy might not come on this exact day, she couldn't stop glancing at the door. And no matter how many times she'd sprinkled some potion onto the different kinds of flowers she held close, the tune seemed silent to her ears and fast heartbeat.

When half of her work time passed she'd lost all hope and went into work-mode, all distractions be damned. She got all of her orders up to Thursday done, even though it would have been fine if she only did those for tomorrow, hell she even got that long Hair Growth potion that was due Saturday done because she wanted to keep her hands busy.

She'd almost kept herself busy enough not to notice the long-awaited ring of the bell. _Almost_.

"Excuse me, is the shop still open?“

She turned around hastily, sucking in a breath and looked at him. There he was closing the door and turning around. He wore a light blue coat with a hood today which matched perfectly with the sword which was tucked into his side into a black and blue case. His garments were dark grey and a black bag was tucked around his waist under the coat, lined with silver rings. To say he was captivating was an understatement and her nervousness from up until that moment climbed through the roof and she found it difficult to breathe.

When he took down his hood he looked at her and bit his lip and it took everything in her not to squeal at the sight.

"No, it's open,“ she smiled and pretended to be busy by looking down and playing with some things that were sitting on the counter. She also gave herself a mental pat on the back for keeping her voice steady and wondered why this man had such an effect on her. A part of her told her she was already familiar with him but she pushed it aside since it didn't make sense at all, as if she would ever forget knowing such a presence.

When he walked over to the counter she grabbed his bottle alongside a dropper and put it in a paper bag handing it to him with a smile. "Here you go, be sure not to put more than 3 drops into one cup of tea and not more than 8 drops in the span of 24 hours.“

"Thank you, um-" he looked away as their fingers brushed.

"Would you like me to write that down for you?“

"That would be lovely, thank you.“

"It's not a problem,“ she said and walked over to the side of the counter where she kept her papers and torn a small piece carefully.

As she was trying to find something to write it down with he began speaking: "You sure keep the ladybug game going strong, huh?“

She chuckled a little. "Yeah, a little too strong, don't I?“

She walked back to where he was and found a pen and some ink and began writing. "I was obsessed with ladybugs as a child and may have put my first 20 spells into making things ladybug themed.“

"My mother freaked because I never remembered how exactly I made some of the potions and she couldn't revert some of the things. Like for example, that wall,“ she pointed behind herself, "and my cat's tail.“

That made the guy laugh; "Your cat's tail?“

"Yeah, my mom managed to make the dots into lines so it looks more natural but she was never able to get it back to its original state. I could probably do it now, but it kind of grew on me just like this wall grew on my mother.“

When the guy looked into her eyes and she got lost in the green she couldn't help but wish he'd stay a while longer. She handed him the piece of paper and said: "Do you want to stay for a cup of tea? I could close up the shop right now.“

As the guy fell silent she regretted the words. Had she acted too hastily? Oh, _God_ , he must have thought she was some sort of-

"Honestly, I wish I could say yes, but I was barely able to make some time to come here for half an hour.“

"Oh, you could have come tomorrow it's not like I would have thrown it away.“

"I knew _that_ , but-" he sighed and mumbled something that Marinette wouldn't have heard if she didn't have every hair on her body entirely focused on him.

_I wanted to see you as soon as possible._

"Where do you work that's kept you so busy?“ she asked, distracting herself from the frantic beating in her eardrums.

"I work at the castle.“

"Oh,“ she said, a bit too sadly as he began walking towards the door.

"That cup of tea, can I come down to have it on a different day?“

She smiled and nodded her head, overly excited.

"As long as you come between 10:30 and 11, I take my break then.“

When he put on his hood and opened the door he turned back and asked: "What's your name, pretty?“

"Marinette.“

He hummed. "Beautiful. The shoe fits don't it?“

Just as she was about to ask for his he turned and the bell rung leaving an overly blushing Marinette alone to her thoughts.

...

Ever since the drunk customer fiasco, Plagg has grown affectionate towards Marinette, _extra_ affectionate and Marinette was _far_ from complaining. Every time the cat would walk through the front door he would go straight to Marinette's lap or tangle himself between her legs. When she wouldn't give him attention right away he'd climb the counter using the drawers' handles and nudge her with his nose until she started to giggle, letting go of the pretence that she didn't see him. They had even managed to find a comfortable position where she could work and he could be close to her, he would roll around her neck, leaning his bottom on her right shoulder and placing his head in front of her neck on the left, with his tail wrapped around her right forearm.

Marinette wasn't sure if he was there since he wanted to pet and be pet or if he desired to protect her ever since the last time, but she loved it either way.

They were entangled in that very position when a rustling sound came through the front door, without the bell ringing. She noticed Plagg turning his head so she turned hers as well and noticed a red fox coming in through the pet door.

She smiled and said: "Your clothes are upstairs,“ too busy to notice Plagg's sudden frozen body and wide eyes.

The fox walked up the stairs and a couple of minutes later Alya was coming down the stairs.

"Found out anything good today?“

"When it comes to the newspaper, no,“ Alya sat down and took the cup which laid on the counter with a smirk.

"But?“ Marinette encouraged.

 _"But_ ,“ Alya laughed, "when it comes to me...“

Marinette turned around to face Alya with a groan and whined: "Oh, spill already!“

Alya raised her hands in mock surrender and said: "Fine, fine.“

"The prince's guard's name is Nino Lahiffe. And he happens to be wifeless and not courting anybody at the moment.“

"Oh,“ Marinette teased.

"He's also 36.“

"Yuck,“ Marinette said and turned back around, going back to work again.

"Oh, don't yuck me, I'm older than you.“

"Yeah, 4 years older, but he's still 9 years older than you.“

"Oh, boohoo, like I care,“ Alya was smiling - Marinette could hear it, "when dealing with such a hottie age doesn't matter. Besides your parents were 12 years apart in age.“

"If it works for you, fine I guess,“ Marinette turned around quickly with her eyes wide, "Wait, you're mentioning my parents, you're taking this seriously.“

Alya sighed: "Well, it's about time for me to find somebody don't you think. I'm 27, so old that people don't refer to me as a maiden anymore even though I'm unmarried and women of my age were excluded from the prince's bride hunt.“

Marinette's gaze softened at her best friend. Her best friend was a shapeshift fox and just like witches weren't looked at from good light, neither were shapeshifters. Any guy who would find out Alya was a fox would run without turning back and she knew her best friend was self-conscious about it.

"So we need to find a way to charm him, huh?“

"Yes, preferably a good one,“ Alya giggled and Marinette joined her.

...

"Do you think I should tell her?“

"Which one of the two secrets are we talking about now?“ Nino answered.

"Actually, I was talking about my name, can I say it?“

"So you're going to ignore the two elephants standing on top of your head?“

Adrien didn't respond, he kept his eyes on the papers he was working through and sighed. Nino knew it was a sign to leave the topics he was trying to indulge in, so he switched back to the original question.

"Why do you want her to know your name?“

"I asked for her name, it would be only fair to give her mine. I escaped before she could ask, but I want her to know it, I don't want to lie.“

 _Lying doesn't go far from not telling the truth_ , Nino thought but held it to himself and continued the conversation: "I think it's safe telling her your name, it's not the kingdom knows.“

Adrien looked up with his brows furrowed: "What?“

"When you were born your father made sure your name wasn't mentioned so that every newborn wouldn't have the same name as you. As his firstborn son, he wanted you to carry a unique name so it was planned to be kept silent. The first time the people will hear your name will be at the coronation.“

Adrien nodded, lost in thought: "I will tell her, then.“

"Your name or-"

"Don't even start.“

...

It was three days since she hadn't seen Plagg or the unknown man. Somehow she felt lonely and she couldn't decipher which one of the two did she miss most. When she mumbled a spell, flipping the 'Open' sign which stood in front of her door, she headed for the back of the first floor to get to the kitchen.

A ringing sound interrupted her walking and she couldn't fight back the smile that laid on her face when familiar green eyes stared into hers.

"Hi,“ he said and he was already hanging his coat on the hanger.

"Here for that cup of tea?“ she asked, noticing how his ears went red.

"Y-yeah,“ he said and scratched the behind of his neck with his right hand. "D-do you, umm, want me to lock the door?“

She headed towards the back. "It's fine, I've got it, just follow me.“ Marinette mumbled something and a locking sound was hear but she missed his wide eyes when it happened.

When they entered the back, Adrien was surprised by the amount of pink that greeted his eyes. It felt like the entire ladybug theme was thrown out of the window when it came to the kitchen and seating area. Everything was coated in pastel pinks and hues of white and yellow and even though the room was smaller than the smallest rooms in the castle, and he realised he felt more at home in it than in his bedroom.

He didn't even notice that he was standing at the door frame until Marinette motioned for him to sit down at the table with her. When he was sitting at the table, watching her back and how her dark blue hair fell on her shoulder, a voice rang in his head telling him that what he was doing lacked in manners, entering a maiden's home and being alone with just her, yet a part of his mind knew that he prefered being there over anything else so he stayed still, sitting on one of the two chairs.

"Do you need any help?“ he asked as she placed a pot and two teacups on a tray.

"No, it's fine,“ she said and brought over the tray to the table, going back to get another one with some pastries on it.

When she sat down on the other chair, there was less than a metre of space between the two of them. Instead of the usual times where he tried to get away from women and their closeness he found himself slowly edging closer even though his mind kept telling him it was inappropriate.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, sipping and munching. Even though he felt more comfortable than he did at his own home, he wanted to hear her speak therefore he began the conversation, a tad bit awkwardly.

"So, you're a witch, huh?“

Marinette's eyes were wide for a second and she began giggling wholeheartedly. When he listened to the sound, he wished he could record it and keep it in his pocket to carry around with him everywhere he went. After a minute of giggling, she wiped the tears that came with the sudden burst of laughter.

"What an ice-breaker, oh my God,“ she said but she began giggling again and Adrien couldn't help but join in with his chuckles.

"Well, I call myself a witch since I sell potions, but I am not just a witch.“

"Oh really?“

"Yes, the truth is my father was a witch,“ Adrien's eyebrows rose, "yes, that's not very typical, I know. But my entire existence isn't typical to be fair. My father was the big and bulky one, he was practically three heads taller than mom yet she was stronger than him physically and emotionally.“

Adrien smiled as she looked thoughtful while speaking about her parents.

"My mother was also a wizard and when they began courting, everybody lost it. Not only were witches and wizards sought after still, because the whole revolution thing had barely happened, not that people are any less conservative now.“

She sighed and her expression was sad but before he could ask about it she was speaking again.

"But people were also against their relationships because even when wizards and witches were put into the 'bad people' group, they still didn't belong together. After a while of fighting for themselves, they realised they couldn't be together where they were and escaped and arrived right in this town. Well, it was a village back then, really.“

"When I was five, I'd mixed some of mom's potions when she wasn't looking and spilt it on Tikki's tail. It turned red with black dots and my mother freaked.“ Marinette was chuckling and Adrien joined her without even realising it.

"Even though she was mad about the tail, she realised I was able to make up a potion on top of my head, instead of having to learn how to do it using a potion book. So, they labelled me as a witch and began teaching me from there. They used to tell me I was so smart and asked me how I knew the things I did, but I had no idea, it was so natural to me.“

"When I turned 8, my dad was tucking me into my bed and he absent-mindedly said 'Is the door locked' and apparently I looked at him, mumbled something and said 'It is now' and then fell asleep.“

"Really?“

"Really, really. So he tried to test something with me in the morning and boom, I was also a wizard, apparently a little advanced in that, too. I guess you could say I am a little bit of both, but neither in a sense. I am strong in both areas, but I happen to call myself a witch since it's what I do for a living.“

"What's the difference between a wizard and a witch?“

"What, they didn't teach you this, castle boy?“

He chuckled. "Not exactly, no. Only that they handle magic and shouldn't be messed with.“

"Right,“ she sighed, "well, a witch handles everything physical,“ she got up and took a bottle filled with a pale pink liquid and one that looked like an oil which were sitting on the counter and carried them to the table, taking a drop of each into a small plate and mixing, "like the potion I gave you, a witch can take some ingredients, mix them and get them to do a certain thing.“

As she said that, she dipped her pointer finger into the mixed liquid and touched one of the daisies that were in a vase on the table. The daisy suddenly changed colour, from white to a gorgeous green and Marinette convinced herself it wasn't because she was thinking of his eye colour at the time. Adrien let out a 'Woah' and it made her giggle.

"However if you were to take the same ingredients as I just did, mixed them and touched the flower, it wouldn't have worked unless I was the one who mixed them. You need to be a witch for a potion to work.“

Adrien nodded his head and it made Marinette feel as if she was a teacher in primary school and somehow it made her heart warm.

"On the other hand wizard don't need to rely on a potion in order to create a spell,“ she wiped her hands on her apron, "they can simply touch the object,“ she touched another daisy and it turned green again, "or they can create it out of thin air.“

She closed her eyes and mumbled something and a white daisy lied in her empty hand all of a sudden.

"Whoa,“ he said.

"Is it really that impressive?“ she said, liking the attention just a bit.

"Of course it is. Although I'm a little bit biased.“

"Really? How so?“

"I think anything would be impressive if you did it.“

She felt her cheeks go warm and avoided eye contact.

"I don't think being a witch is that impressive.“

"Why not?“

"To be fair, I think spells are a cool thing, but I'd prefer if I was just a normal girl.“

"Why would you think that?“ he sounded frustrated and Marinette couldn't phantom why.

"As much as the whole revolution changed things for wizards and witches, we still get disrespected a lot. I claim myself a witch because wizards get so much more rage than witches do, but it's still a daily thing. I mean, just the other day a drunkard called me a whore just based on the fact that I was a witch and wouldn't succumb to his witches.“

Adrien's gaze softened but she missed it.

"And the whole situation with witches and wizards being excluded from the competition doesn't help, it only gives the people more reason to think that we are lower than them.“

"Oh, but I'm sure those weren't the king's intentions. They probably only thought that one of them-well you, could use magic to get their way to the throne.“

"That's exactly the thing!“ Marinette sounded angry and she felt a horrible feeling of guilt right away but she couldn't stop the words from exiting her mouth. "We aren't trusted. We are looked at like we're some evil people who want nothing but to hurt and overpower. Yes, some wizards and witches could want to get to the throne and try to take advantage of it but so could humans. The king is putting us on blast as if we need any more of that.“

When Adrien looked at her with a sad expression her shoulders relaxed and she began apologising: "I'm sorry for taking it out on you, you have nothing to do with it and the fact that you're sitting at my home proves that you would never disrespect a witch or anyone of that sort. I've just been angry about the whole situation and it's really frustrating, I'm sorry-"

She was interrupted by his hand resting on her shoulder and she relaxed even more at the touch.

"You don't have to apologise, it's totally normal to be frustrated, in your situation anybody would be.“

Marinette smiled and glanced at the clock.

"Oh, shoot my break was over 20 minutes ago,“ she gasped.

"And I should have headed to the castle 30 minutes ago,“ he chuckled and released her shoulder.

As she found herself greeting him by the door she said: "Wait, you still haven't told me your name.“

"Adrien. My name's Adrien.“

"It's nice to meet you, Adrien,“ she hid half her face behind the door.

"It's nice to meet you too, Marinette.“

...

"So how's it going with Nino?“ Marinette asked, petting Plagg in her lap as Alya was petting Tikki in her own.

"I still haven't found a way to get to meet him, I just hope he comes to pick up this grump one of these days,“ she attempted to pet Plagg but he hissed.

"It's funny how he doesn't let anyone touch him but you.“

"Well, I suppose he lets Nino and the prince pet him.“

The cat raised on its feet and walked out of Marinette's lap and headed towards the door only to be grabbed and lifted into the air. Alya dropped him into Marinette's lap again.

"You're not going anywhere until Nino comes to pick you up.“

"Oh Alya, leave the poor cat alone,“ she held her best friend by the arm and let Plagg leave her lap.

"You can figure out how to charm Nino differently without abusing a cat.“

"Hey, that was not abuse.“

The cat stopped in front of the pet door and turned to look at Marinette. "Goodbye Plagg,“ she said when she noticed its attention on her and the cat ran back towards her legs and rubbed its face along her ankle then finally leaving.

Alya glanced at Marinette and at the same time they cooed and giggled.

...

"You did not tell her that you work at the castle.“

"I did.“

"Oh, my God. And she actually called you castle boy?“

"Yes,“ Adrien blushed.

"You do realise I will only refer to you by using that from now on?“

...

"Girl, you wouldn't believe what just happened!“ Alya stormed into the store with a huge bag over her shoulder.

"Good day to you too, Alya,“ Marinette said as she handed an order to a customer.

Alya pulled out a roll of paper and handed it to Marinette.

"Is it Nino-related?“

"No, just look at it already,“ Alya said as she practically jumped in place.

As Marinette unrolled the paper she noticed it was one of Alya's newspaper and she gasped at the title _'Witches and wizards now included in prince's competition'_.

As she read through the newspaper a smile took on her face.

_It has been brought to my attention how excluding witches and wizards from the competition to get the prince a bride could cause tension and a lack of respect towards them. I sincerely apologise to the ones who have faced disrespect on my behalf and my order, as long as you promise not to influence my son's decision's in ruling, wizards and witches are allowed to participate from this moment. Those who have something against this decision or them, in general, shall come to speak to me and I will deal with that personally and those who choose to harm ones of a magic background will be punished severely._

_Sincerely, the king._

Marinette didn't know she was crying until Alya pointed it out and she wiped the tears away.

"When did this happen?“

Alya whispered so only Marinette could hear "I was snooping around the castle as a fox when I heard they will be releasing the statement tomorrow so I took one of the paper rolls and got them printed so I could sell them before then!“

Marinette giggled: "So you went to the printing office before telling me?“

"Oh, hush, I was only there for the first 30 and ran here, not only that but I gave you one just now for free.“

Marinette laughed as her friend was passing the newspaper along to her own customers and a feeling of happiness overwhelmed her. How nice was the sudden change of mind of the king, huh? She didn't know what brought the king to apologise, but she knew exactly who to thank.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't mind, please let me know by leaving kudos, comments, bookmarks or subscribing that you're following along with this story. I've noticed that 30 people have already subscribed and it only makes me more excited since I can't wait to see where this story goes!
> 
> P.S. Don't be shy to tell me if you notice some mistakes, I'd love to talk with you if something is unclear or fix my mistakes if I've made some!


	3. Flowers, chocolates, jewellery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter might be a little bit dj wifi centred, not that I regret it.
> 
> P.S. Sorry it took me so long to update, I'll try to be quicker next time. I realised I told somebody in the comments that I'll update it by yesterday which clearly didn't happen so I'm sorry if that made anyone expecting something yesterday!
> 
> On another note, I hope you'll like this chapter.

Nino looked around the wide hallway to see if anybody was near them as he walked the prince to his father's office. After noticing that nobody was near them he grinned at the prince.

"Castle boy,“ he said dragging the last syllable.

"It's been a week, knock it off, _please_.“ Adrien answered and Nino noticed his mood was off.

"What's wrong?“

"Father called me into his chambers, Nino. That's never a good thing.“

"Oh,“ Nino said but by a glint in his eye, he knew the teasing was about to begin again. "Think you might be scolded for making an announcement for your special witch?“

"Nino,“ he groaned and it only made the guard wiggle his eyebrows.

...

It was Marinette's lunch break when Alya stormed into the cottage through the back door. She was about to scream at her friend for scaring her but Alya slumped on the floor leaning onto the door and her face was hidden by her hands.

Marinette immediately rushed over and kneeled in front of her friend, attempting to remove her hands.

"Alya what's wrong?“

A muffled squeal came out of Alya's mouth and when Marinette was finally able to move her hands away she noticed how red her best friend's face was.

"He-I,“ her friend squealed again.

"Is it good or bad?“ she was sure it wasn't something negative, but she'd never seen her friend this excited.

"So good, Mari.“

Marinette smiled and led her friend to the two-person table. After a couple of minutes of letting Alya calm down, she began talking again.

"What happened?“

Alya took a deep breath "I was running through the castle as a fox and saw Nino in front of the king's chambers. I couldn't help but stare and he noticed me. I was frozen in spot, I was so scared, you know how people get usually when they encounter me in that form.“

Marinette nodded, she knew red foxes were rare and that their fur was incredibly pricey. And when people didn't know she was human, they would try to catch her and it only made Alya traumatised. Alya was capable of shapeshifting and running around the castle freely because she knew she was small and unnoticeable and could escape quickly in the large space. However, whenever a guard noticed her (which had only happened twice in the past few years) she wasn't able to leave her house for a few days.

"He got close and pet me, Mari. I've never had anybody pet me but you. And his hands were so big and warm I didn't even notice he was holding me until I opened my eyes. He even talked as if I was a person and I-" Alya sighed. "I've never felt so cherished.“

"What did he say?“

"Something about me being rare and why was I in the castle. I don't know I was too dazzled to focus on what he was saying.“

"Your fox form took over?“

"A little, yeah. It probably couldn't help it, it'd never felt so nice before.“

Marinette smiled and squeezed Alya's trembling hands.

"And he carried me in his hands to the gate, making sure no one could see me even though he ran the way back because he wasn't supposed to leave his position.“

Marinette looked into her friend's eyes and noticed they were glistening in unspilled tears.

"Oh, Alya.“

"I think,“ Alya sniffed but her tears weren't falling, "my fox has created a bond with him? I'm not sure yet, I would have to see him again. But if he comes here for Plagg, like he did the last time and the bond is there, he would certainly feel a certain type of way towards me.“

"That's interesting.“

"Yeah, I thought it wasn't a real thing when my mom talked about it when I was a child but now I could feel it. The bad part is, humans, can't feel it with our animal forms but some can with our human form so he probably doesn't even know.“

"Well, he'd definitely feel something for you isn't that a good thing?“

Alya's eyes widened. "Yeah, that's great actually.“

Alya gave her a weird look before giggling. "I'd totally become his pet if things don't work out though.“

...

When Adrien entered her shop about 10 days after the last time she'd seen him Marinette felt something in her snap. She became overwhelmed by the emotion of last week's announcement and practically ran around the counter, into his arms.

Adrien's body froze at the touch but he immediately relaxed once he noticed what was happening. His arms wrapped around Marinette slightly and Marinette didn't realise how inappropriate the situation was until Miss Hansen gave them an odd look from the counter.

Not only did she throw herself on a man, but the man also hadn't had time to even remove his coat and it must have looked like they were courting even if they weren't. It was probably a bad thing, too, since Miss Hansen loved to gossip and it would have looked bad if Adrien was courting anyone. Was Adrien courting anyone?

She removed herself from him and removed her thoughts from her head. "Thank you!“

"What are you talking about?“

"The announcement was you, wasn't it? How did you even do that?“

"I have a way of getting the things I want.“

Marinette walked over to the counter to finish Miss Hansen's potion while Adrien was taking off his coat. Her break was starting in a few minutes but she was planning on ending it a few moments early as soon as she could chase her away.

When she handed the finished potion to her, Miss Hansen glanced between Adrien sitting on the bench near the door, his feet dangling over her cat's cushion and Marinette standing at the countered, she whispered so only Marinette could hear it: "Young love, huh?“

And even as she stammered a no when Miss Hansen was leaving Marinette couldn't help but think there was nothing to raise objections on.

...

It only took hanging out with Adrien a second time to find out about his love for puns. Horrible, awful, disgusting love of puns. And it seemed that every time Marinette groaned in annoyance it would only push him to do it more, to frustrate her further.

What made the whole thing worse, Adrien's prefered puns were cat-themed or connected to cats in a certain way and Marinette was not having him ruin something she loved so dearly by creating terrible puns.

It didn't actually bother her that much, not that she would admit it.

"Adrien, I swear to God-"

" _Paws_ itively?“ Adrien grinned.

"You're such a-"

" _Purr_ fect guy.“

"I wasn't going to say that!“

"Me-ouch.“

...

Plagg was lying in her lap and Marinette was scratching him behind his right ear in that particular way that made him purr in satisfaction when an idea crossed her mind.

"Y'know I could get your tail to look just like Tikki's.“

The cat stilled at her words and hissed.

"Well, the same thing just with green.“

The cat got up to its feet and looked at her, Marinette glancing back.

"I can do it in a second, Plagg.“

The cat raised its paw to scratch at her and Marinette giggled, raising her hands in mock surrender.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding.“

When Plagg returned to his position in her lap, nudging her with his tail to continue petting him Marinette smiled and mumbled: "As if I could do anything without the owner's permission.“

...

Courting was a regular thing girls experienced in Netswa. As soon as a girl turned 16 it was common knowledge that she was old enough to be courted with an idea of marriage in mind, though parents rarely allowed marriage to happen before the age of 18.

It was also common knowledge that courting, aside from holding hands and sharing romantic feelings between each other involved gifts. Particularly, gifts from the guy to the girl. It was a way of beginning courting in general. A guy would approach a girl with a gift of some sort (flowers, chocolates, jewellery or even something hand-made) and if she accepted it, it meant that the two could refer to each other as lovers. Some guys, however, liked to play secretly, leaving gifts first and then introducing themselves as a potential lover.

When a girl turned 16, typically she would get gifts from multiple guys and decide which one she would get to court. If she hadn't received gifts by the age of 18, parents would meddle in to get the ball rolling and introduce her to some families in hope of striking interest by somebody. That was considered normal and girls would usually be married by the age of 20, sometimes a little later.

Marinette, however, did not share the normal experience. Since her parents passed away when she was young, she was being taken care of by Alya's parents until she decided to live in her parents' cottage by herself. When she turned 16, she quickly realised she wasn't seen as a regular girl by the town's men, rather she was disrespected as a witch and it made her blood boil. Though nobody ever tried to court her in the first place, she knew she would have rejected the offer right away if she knew of their opinion of witches and since she had no parents which would meddle and try to find her a companion of sorts – which she didn't think was too likely since the memories she has of them didn't depict them as old-fashioned – she was still single at the age of 24.

And even as she lost all hope of ever living a happy married life by the age of 20, she still found herself dreaming of a happy family with three children and a loving husband. She always fantasized of such a life even if she had no hope of it happening.

So with her mind convinced she'll never get courted, you wouldn't believe her surprise when she found a red velvet box on her counter after closing her shop one afternoon. After locking her door with a mumble she found herself staring at the red box.

She took it in her palm, staring at it with wide eyes. Her mind instantly concluded it was a courting gift and she scolded herself for concluding such a thing. Perhaps one of today's customers left it on accident and would come to pick it up tomorrow.

"Yeah, that's probably it,“ she said to no one in particular as she opened the box, not listening to the small voice in her head telling her not to. What, it was in her shop, she can touch all things that are in her property.

All the assumptions that it's not a courting gift were thrown out of the window when she opened the box, a small gasp leaving her lips. In the box stood a ring made of white gold, in the shape of leaves circling the finger. The leaves were small, with intricate details left in the shape of veins along the leaves. What really took her breath away was the little ladybug sitting on top of the leaves.

It was a red gemstone whose name Marinette didn't know, not that it mattered. Carved in the shape of a ladybug and when the light hit it directly, the small crevises looked black, showcasing 6 perfect dots on the ladybug's body.

She found herself smiling at the ring, standing in front of her cottage while letting the sun hit the gemstone directly, opening her mouth in awe. Marinette was probably standing in front of the door for ten-fifteen minutes spacing out when she realised she would need a second opinion.

Without thinking, she locked the door using an actual key and ran towards the printing office ignoring the odd looks she gained on the way.

...

She stormed into the printing office, making some of the workers flinch and calm down when they noticed it was her. Heading straight into the main office, she knocked on the door before allowing herself inside.

Alya was sitting in front of a bunch of unrolled paper holding her hair in frustration attempting to write something and sighing. She glanced up at Marinette and her eyes widened.

"Mari-"

"I need you to confirm my suspicions,“ Marinette said as she placed the red box in front of Alya.

Alya's brows furrowed but she took the box in her hands and opened it nonetheless. When she opened it, her eyes widened once again and she smiled.

"Green-eyed boy finally courting you? Congratulations, Mari.“

Her cheeks immediately reddened and she found herself waving her arms in protest. "N-no, Alya, I found it on my counter.“ Marinette did, in fact, entertain the idea a little when she first thought it was a courting gift, but she shook the idea away just as fast. Hearing it come out of her best friend's mouth wasn't good for her heart either way.

"Well, it's definitely a courting gift, do you know who might have left it?“

"I have no idea,“ Marinette shrugged.

"When was the last time you saw him?“ Alya asked, and the thought of Adrien had her heart beating in an unfamiliar, too fast kind of way. The idea that the gift could possibly be from him made it seem like she was living in one of those alternate realities she dreamt of, leaving her a blushing mess in her bed at four in the morning.

"Like 5 days ago? He didn't stop by today so it couldn't be from him,“ Marinette answered, surprised by the calmness in her voice.

Alya hummed thoughtfully and she bit her lip in thought. It took a bit, but when she opened her lips again an expression of realisation took on her face and she left out an 'Oh'.

"What?“

"Maybe it was from the prince?“

"What are you-"

"Listen, judging by the last time Nino came to pick you up, it seemed like he knew you were taking care of Plagg for a while so he must have said something and the prince sent out a gift for you in gratitude?“

"But why wouldn't he come here and bring it himself? I thought nobles functioned on pride.“

Alya chuckled a little, amused by her friend's statement. "That's probably true, not gonna lie. If it was from his majesty, he probably sent it by somebody not to bring too much attention to it, to have people think you won the competition.“

"I guess that makes sense but he definitely would have left a letter of some sort or _something_ to let me know it was from him. This looks like one of those 'I'm-secretly-courting-you' situations and if he didn't want the town to know he left me a gift, he would have made sure I wouldn't get such an idea.“

Alya nodded her head and looked at Marinette. "A ring is also a really bold thing to give to somebody you don't want to court.“

"Yeah. Plus, it looks like a courting gift. It looks like-"

"It was made specially for you.“

Marinette blushed at the thought and nodded her head. She then groaned in frustration. "It probably costs more than everything I own.“

The two giggled and Alya stared up at Marinette again. "I think you should ask him about it.“

"You really think so?“

"Yes, he's been spending some time with you and you turn into a blushing mess as soon as he's even mentioned in conversation.“

"Adrien.“

"Hm?“

"That's his name, Adrien.“

Alya squinted but Marinette was too lost in thought to notice it. She grabbed the door handle, and turned back around to Alya, taking the box with her.

"I like it. It's unique, like mine.“

Alya smiled at her friend. "Yes, it really is. Bye, Mari.“

"Bye, Alya.“

...

It was a full ten days since she'd last seen Adrien and she was having lunch with Alya on a Sunday with the cats laying in their laps. When the bell rung, she turned towards the door and noticed Nino walking in. She patted Alya on the shoulder to turn around and greeted Nino politely.

Nino returned the greeting but his eyes seemed permanently stuck on Alya's.

"Here to pick up the kitty?“ she pet the sleeping cat in her lap.

"Y-yeah, it was about time he returned,“ Nino said and Marinette noticed the nervousness encircling her friend and the prince's royal guard, but she did have a question she wanted to ask. She took Plagg into her arms, but instead of walking towards Nino she walked to the back of the counter and took the red velvet box.

"Sorry to bother you, but do you happen to know whether this has anything to do with the prince?“

She handed the box back to Nino and Nino looked surprised for a fraction of a second, only for a calm expression to morph back onto his face.

"With all due respect, the prince does not involve me in his personal business. I have no idea who that box came from, but I can tell you it definitely came from the royal jeweller.“

Marinette nodded her hand and said a 'Thank you', taking the box and giving Plagg to Nino. Nino took the cat into his arms and the cat stared back at her from Nino's hands.

"Can I get you anything? A glass of water or a cup of tea?“ Marinette asked with the intention of keeping him there for a couple of minutes, alone with Alya. Nino seemed to get the same idea when he glanced Alya's way for a second and nodded.

"A glass of water would be fine.“

Marinette headed back to the kitchen, closing the door behind her.

Plagg seemed restless in Nino's arms until he climbed his shoulders in a similar manner he did to Marinette.

"Plagg seems to like you,“ Alya said.

"Not really,“ Nino chuckled albeit nervously.

"He doesn't let me pet him, let alone creep in my lap or on my shoulders,“ Alya stood in front of him now and Nino couldn't break the eye contact no matter how much he tried.

"Well, since I am always somewhere close to him, he was forced to get used to me. I'm surprised he lets Marinette touch him, usually he hisses at people who only do so much as look at him.“

"He does that to me,“ Alya giggled.

"Um, what's your name?“ Nino asked awkwardly after chuckling along with Alya.

Alya held her hand out. "Alya.“

Nino took her hand and the attraction he felt was somehow through the roof at the contact. "Nino,“ he mumbled.

"I hate to beat around the bushes,“ Alya said and Nino didn't realise he was still holding on to her hand.

"What?“

"Are you married?“

Nino blushed furiously and Alya giggled at his antics.

"No.“

"Courting?“

"N-no.“

Alya hummed and it only made Nino blush more.

"W-what about you?“

"Oh, sweetheart, you think I'd ask you if I was?“

The pet name made Nini squirm and only then did he notice he was still holding her hand, an electric feeling going through his veins. He looked at their joint arms suspiciously when he realised something. His blush was gone and he looked at Alya, cocking a brow.

"You're the red fox, aren't you?“

"What?“ Alya looked shocked and she let go of Nino's hand immediately.

"Don't worry,“ Nino raised his arms in defence, "I don't have anything against shapeshifters. Both my parents and all my brothers are shapeshifters so I couldn't hate them if I tried.“

"But how do you...“ Alya mumbled.

"Know?“ Nino asked and Alya nodded her head appreciatively.

"Your fox created a bond didn't she?“ Nino said and finally felt like he'd done something right when a blush took upon Alya's face and she nodded.

"I can also sense when somebody is a shapeshifter since I've been surrounded by them practically my whole life.“

"Oh,“ Alya said, looking a bit dejected.

"Where do you work?“

"At the printing office, I kind of own the place,“ she said.

"Are you free tomorrow evening?“ Nino said looking all kinds of smug.

Alya looked surprised but smiled anyway. "Depends.“

"Oh really? On what?“

"If you're taking me out.“

Nino chuckled before he headed for the door. "I'll pick you up at five.“

Alya smirked and teased. "I don't know if I'll be free, though.“

This only made Nino chuckle more as he left out the door with a goodbye.

As soon as the door closed Marinette ran into the room.

"What happened?“

"Are you really going to stand around and pretend you weren't eaves-dropping this entire time?“

Marinette looked away for a second; "I wasn't!“

"Sure you weren't, where's your glass of water.“

Marinette avoided her eyes for a second before jumping on Alya and hugging her.

"Congratulations!“

"For what? Nothing's happened yet.“

"Oh please, I could feel the romantic tension in the air through the door!“

"You know you don't have to act innocent, right? You can totally say sexual tension.“

"Oh my God- _Alya_!“

...

Adrien hadn't come to the shop in 12 days straight (not that Marinette was counting) and it made Marinette worried a little. If he was the one who left the gorgeous ladybug ring, he surely would have come. It made her a bit disappointed, but today another gift was left on her counter in a red velvet box, a bit bigger than the last one.

When she opened it, a midnight coloured hair accessory was in it. It matched the colour of her hair perfectly and the silver gemstones which stood on its top looked like stars in the sky. The comb reminded her of that one time she made her mom's hair look like a starry sky with a spell and her mother shrieked after she teased her that she didn't know how to return it back to normal.

Her mother did later admit that she really liked it and made Marinette repeat it whenever her parents went out for a date night and for other special occasions. She was recalling the memories and her eyes were glassy as she remembered.

She couldn't keep her eyes off the beautiful comb and it made her want to wear buns regularly so that she could showcase it perfectly. It would even go perfectly with her mother's old gown, not that she had anywhere to wear it.

She sighed and put it back to place in the box and just as she was about to close it, she noticed a piece of paper stuck to the box's top on the inside. She pulled it out only to be greeted by beautiful calligraphy.

_It's not nearly as beautiful as your hair, but I hope you'll like it._

The note looked handwritten and it made her breath hitch for a second. Her ears were filled with nothing but the sound of her frantic heartbeats and the echoic memory of Adrien saying those words. Somehow after she realised she could imagine him saying the words exactly, it was hard to convince herself that it wasn't from him.

She glanced at the box which held the ring, opening it and finding another small piece of paper, wondering how she and Alya hadn't noticed it before. Without thinking she brought the paper to her nose and was greeted by a familiar scent, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was exactly.

When she opened it again, she couldn't help but blush as another string of Adrien's words filled her ears.

_For the most beautiful ladybug I know._


	4. Something special

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not posting, I've been away from my laptop and I hate typing on my phone especially when I began writing on my laptop. I planned to post a week from the last chapter but my laptop kept turning off and it's not working properly (it turned off at least 6 times as I was writing this no joke) so I was kind of stuck.
> 
> Enough excuses, hope you like this chapter! I hope there aren't too many grammatical mistakes, as well...
> 
> P.S. I'm sorry about the drama.

The next time Adrien walked into the store, it'd been two weeks since he last came. Marinette was turned with her back towards the entrance, letting out a 'Bonjour' once she heard the bell ring but she didn't turn around, seemingly too busy with brewing a potion.

In truth, Marinette was just trying to make herself busy, keeping her mind off a certain green-eyed man, not that she would admit it.

"Bonjour to you too,“ he said and watched as she froze in spot when she heard his name.

She turned around, her eyes wide before she dropped the ladle she was holding. Her face went red as she fumbled to pick it up, only to drop it again. She muttered something under her breath and the ladle flew back into her hand. When she looked up again, she saw Adrien holding a hand to his mouth, trying to laugh silently.

"What so funny?“ Marinette pouted.

Adrien shook his head fondly before quietly saying: "You're adorable.“

The sound echoed in her ears but she was pretty sure she imagined it. "W-what?“, her cheeks ablazed nonetheless.

"I said,“ Adrien walked up to the counter and looked Marinette in the eye, "you're adorable.“

Her pink cheeks turned red and she avoided his gaze for a second too long when she whispered: "Thanks, I guess.“

When Marinette headed for the back, Adrien followed her automatically and helped her make two cups of tea. He carried the cups to the table while she carried a tray filled with cookies and they sat down at the two-person table.

"How's everything been around here?“ Adrien began the conversation.

"What do you mean?“ Marinette enquired.

"Since I've last been here.“

Marinette's mouth formed an 'Oh' before she spoke. "The usual. What's kept you so busy?“

"There's a little bit of drama going around at the castle, I couldn't leave. Not that I didn't want to come, y' know?“

"Really?“ she smiled.

"Of course. But even a couple of days back when I managed to get some free time, I was too shy to come here.“

Marinette's brows furrowed. "Why were you shy?“

"It's time that I ask you, isn't it?“ he said.

"Ask me what?“

Adrien's right hand went inside his coat and – wait why was he still wearing his coat – he pulled out a red velvet box out of it.

_Oh._

Her heart was starting to speed up at the realization and her face relaxed, the corners of her lips lifting up.

"I've been meaning to ask you, but whenever I thought I should I just got too scared and backed out. You're a really sweet girl, Marinette and I should also probably let you know that-"

"You're the one who left those courting gifts?“ Marinette couldn't hold out any longer.

Adrien blushed: "I – well, yes –"

"Thank God,“ Marinette smiled.

Adrien's eyes were wide: "What?“

Marinette was the one to blush this time. "I thought it couldn't have been you since you haven't come at all lately so my best friend suggested that maybe the prince left them in gratitude of taking care of his cat. But we still thought the gifts looked way too much like courting gifts so whoever it was, it meant that they were trying to court me. I decided not to wear any of the gifts since I didn't want to accept without knowing, but had I known it was you, I would have worn them right away.“

Adrien was smiling as he reached his hand in her direction. Marinette immediately placed her own into his as he said; "So, you accept?“

"Of course, yes.“

Adrien couldn't shake the grin off his face as he let go of her hand and slipped the box into it. Marinette eyed him curiously before she opened it and smiled.

Inside were white gold earrings each consisting of a leaf freely falling down. It looked similar to the leaves that were on the ladybug ring, perhaps even matched with it perfectly, speaking out of Marinette's memory and the fact that she stared at it for fifteen minutes every day.

"It matches the ring,“ she said.

"Yeah, that's not an accident,“ he smiled confidently.

"I should put them on in the right order, shouldn't I?“ Marinette said as she got up and quickly walked to the front of the cottage and back. When she sat down again, she was carrying the two boxes and placed them on the table.

She opened the smallest one first, putting the ring on her ring finger on her right hand.

Adrien was resting his head in his palm as hid elbow laid on the table when he smiled cheekily. "Isn't that on the wrong hand?“

Marinette raised an eyebrow. "Eager to mark me as yours?“

"Very.“

"Fine, I'll comply,“ she said as she all but rushed to move the ring from her right hand to the left. When she opened the next box she adjusted her hair before tying it all up with the comb, leaving the shining gemstones out of her hair.

Marinette felt her cheeks go warm when she noticed Adrien never glanced away from her, but she began to put on the earrings as if she didn't notice it. When she clasped the second earring she looked into his eyes and he smiled.

"What?“

"Beautiful,“ he said.

"Yes, the things you've gotten me are very beautiful, but you shouldn't do it all-"

"Not the jewellery, you.“

He took her hands on top of the table and they stared into each other for mere minutes, but it felt much, much longer in their minds.

...

"Don't you think it would have been wiser to let her know you were the fucking prince before you began to court her?“

"I was going to say it, Nino, but-"

"Yeah, you got scared shitless, but that's not an excuse, it's time for you to let her know! At what point of a relationship do you think the 'oh, by the way, I will inherit this kingdom' conversation comes?!“

Adrien stared back at him with wide eyes.

Nino looked dumbfounded before he screamed. "Before the beginning of a relationship, you moron!“

"Leave,“ Adrien muttered, returning his attention to the papers sitting in front of him.

"What?“

"You will not use such a tone with me or curse at me. Leave my office and go reevaluate your actions, you do not treat a superior like this.“

"Really? Gonna use the 'I'm your boss' card when I choose to point at a mistake of yours?“

"I'm certain I gave you an order which you must follow, leave my office right away.“

Nino huffed in irritation before leaving the room, leaving Adrien to his thoughts. He pushed the papers in front of him to the floor and let his head drop in his arms, sighing.

...

The first time Adrien met Tikki things went surprisingly smoothly. He had come by on a Sunday with a large basket claiming he prepared 'the perfect first date' which made Marinette giggle. When they were standing at the counter, talking, Tikki came down the stairs and looked their way, taking the guest in.

However, just as Marinette was about to say that the cat is going to go upstairs as quick as she came down – if not then quicker – the cat headed straight for Adrien's legs. Marinette's eyes were wide when Tikki began wrapping herself around Adrien's legs making him chuckle.

It only took about thirty seconds for Adrien to coo and take the cat into his arms and pet it with all his heart.

"Adrien, meet Tikki, I guess.“

"You weren't kidding when you said you had spelled her tail, huh?“

The grin on Marinette's face was answer enough.

She couldn't help but love the affection that was evident between Tikki and Adrien as he gave the cat his full attention. Memories of Tikki sprinting up the stairs whenever a new customer would come in without looking back once came to her head and as she looked at her enjoy Adrien's embrace, she couldn't help but think it was fate.

...

"The fact that I've never courted anyone and you haven't in a long time and we both begin around the same time is so weird!“

There's no such thing as coincidences, right? I'm so happy you get to court the embodiment of the sun!“

Marinette gasped dramatically. "I've only said that once, stop it! And if you saw him, trust me, you'd think the same!“

"I've got my head full of my boy, trust me, other ones are far from this head,“ Alya said as she knocked on her head with her own fist.

"Head full of your boy? Do tell.“

Alya's voice got lower as she continued speaking. "He spent the night a couple of nights ago.“

"What?!“ Marinette screeched.

"Shush, nothing happened. When I opened the door, I was surprised to see him but he looked so pissed! I hugged him without thinking and he said,“ she sighed dreamily, "and I quote: 'I knew you'd make me feel better.'“

Marinette squealed and Alya would have found it annoying had she not been screaming as well.

"What happened then?“

"We spent a lot of time just talking y' know. He has experience with shifters so speaking with him made me feel super comfortable, I don't know if my parents ever made me feel so good in my skin and I haven't known the guy for a month.“

"I'm so happy for you,“ Marinette smiled.

"Then, it was too late for him to walk back so he slept over at my place.“

Marinette quirked a brow in question.

"Don't give me that look, aside from cuddling, nothing happened.“

Marinette smirked and pointed to Alya's neck where a red mark peeked from under her collar. Alya slapped her hand and tried to direct her attention away: "What's with you and Mrs Sunshine.“

"Are you not saying his name on purpose at this point?“

"Just to annoy you.“

"I knew it. I guess there's nothing interesting to tell you, really. He's super sweet and our first date was great. Oh right! Tikki warmed up to him instantly!“

Alya's forehead creased.

"Yeah, she just came from downstairs and began to push into his legs right away! It was the cutest thing I've ever seen!“

Alya's eyebrows furrowed and she squinted her eyes: "But Tikki doesn't like strangers.“

"That's why I was so surprised, really, I wouldn't be telling you otherwise. I don't know how come it happened, but I can't say I don't like it.“

Marinette's blissful expression distracted her from the confused one on Alya's face. Alya found the situation weird but when she looked at her friend's happiness she couldn't help but shrug her shoulders and forget the thoughts that surfaced in her head.

...

Nino realised way to quickly that being angry at the prince for a longer period of time was, in fact, impossible. He had tried to avoid the prince for a couple of days and did so successfully. Alya also came in her fox form to the castle one day to cheer him up and he found her presence alone comforting.

He was brushing his hands through her tail when the door of his room opened suddenly.

"Come with me, Nino,“ Adrien said as two guarded men followed him.

"You really love the superior talk, don't you?“

Adrien eyed the fox in his lap curiously when he spoke: "We can resolve our quarrel later, I have to go to father's chambers and you need to come with me, stat.“

Nino rose to his feet immediately, placing Alya on his bed carefully.

"What happened?“

"There's trouble at Fea.“

Nino leaned down to Alya and whispered just for her to hear: "I'm sorry, but I have to leave“ and nuzzled her with his nose a little. After that, he ran out of the room, following a frantic Adrien.

...

The next time Plagg came in, he wasn't wearing the bell around his neck. It took Marinette a while to notice it, since she hadn't really cared about becoming the prince's bride in the first place (especially after meeting Adrien) but when she noticed it a sense of panic rushed through her body.

She sat the cat down into her lap and began smothering it with kisses.

"Since you no longer wear the bell, I assume the prince's found his bride, huh?“

She kissed his fur in between her sentences.

"Oh, kitty, I'll miss you so much you know?“

A couple of kisses on his head.

"I wish you were my cat, I wish I took the ring as soon as I saw you so I could spend my days with you even if I dislike the prince.“

She pet the cat's tail gently.

“Tikki’s going to miss you a lot too, oh God.”

She hugged the cat close to her chest as she felt a couple of tears fall down her face. Plagg nuzzled into her neck, as if trying to say something but being unable to convey it.

Marinette understood what he wanted to say when he walked in the next time the moment she opened her shop with the bell jingling around his neck.

When Plagg neared her, he shook his head left and right, as if attempting to force the bell to let out a sound, letting her know it was there.

"So cute,“ she said as she took him into her arms.

"Sweet kitty, came to calm me down.“

Marinette cursed herself when she realised she lost her mind over a forgetful instance or perhaps Plagg losing his bell, but calmed herself down when she realised that she only cried in front of a cat.

...

When Adrien came for their arranged second date, Alya was at the shop after helping Marinette with something.

"Hi, Marinette,“ he said from the entrance after taking off his coat.

Marinette walked over to give him a hug as a form of greeting and introduced the two. She missed how surprised Alya was when she looked at Adrien and how tight her smile was while shaking his hand. She did find it weird when her friend stormed out of the shop all of a sudden, but she deemed her best friend wanted to give the two some privacy.

"I've prepared something special.“

"Really? What did you cook?“ Adrien wiggled his eyebrows.

Marinette smacked him on the forearm jokingly: "I'm not talking about the meal.“

"Really, 'cause I'm _paws_ itive my lady's cooking is very special,“ Adrien smirked.

She was grateful that the sentence contained a pun, giving her something to distract from the nickname ringing in her ears.

"Come, I'll show you. Also, another pun and I'll lock you outside.“

She took his hand and led him towards the back, the light from the front of the shop disappeared, sudden darkness surrounding them. It seemed like Marinette knew exactly what she was doing though as she kept walking, making them stop at a certain spot.

"Look up,“ she quietly said.

When Adrien raised his head Marinette's touch left his hand as she mumbled some words. The ceiling started to open from the inside out, small lights of stars appearing in front of his eyes. The night sky greeted him and the stars seemed to twinkle, he felt that if he raised his hand he'd be able to reach out and touch one or two or swirl his hand and get a bunch of them close.

"Wow,“ he whispered.

"That's not it,“ she said and her grin was apparent in her voice.

When he looked down at her again a string of words left her mouth and the stars that seemed to be close were even closer now, surrounding the both of them, encircling them like a galaxy.

Adrien looked around in awe at the shining lights, an urge to touch them settling under his skin.

"You can reach out and touch them, it's okay. The spell will last for fifteen minutes, I think.“

When he heard those words he reached out at the star he was staring out and it burst into smaller lights, leaving a flower-like glowing pattern until it disappeared after a couple of seconds.

"You're amazing,“ he said. "How you do this is beyond me.“

Marinette was satisfied watching his eyes widened and staring around like a child in awe. When he looked down at her, a smile bloomed on his face and his gaze softened impossibly more.

"I thought the stars were beautiful, but you're much more beautiful than them.“

Her eyes glistened over and he took her face into both of his hands. "My ladybug.“

He brushed her hair behind her ears and cupped her cheeks.

"My lady,“ he whispered when he leaned down.

And right before their lips brushed: "My beautiful lady.“

...

Nino rarely got surprised, he always kept his guard up, he was trained to do so. So no matter what happened he wouldn't jump and get scared, he'd jump to protect Adrien and defend himself and the prince.

His training was useless when a red fox entered through his bedroom window as he was sitting at his desk. The sudden crash left him falling onto his behind from the loud crash and when he turned around a mass was moving under his covers.

Just as he was about to swing the nearest object he grabbed (not that he could do much with the thin pillow he was sitting on moments prior, but he could try) Alya's head peeked from under the covers.

She clutched the covers to her chest, shivering slightly from the cold the night air left on her naked skin.

"Turn around,“ she ordered and he obliged immediately. He heard rustling behind him and when she said he could turn back Alya was wrapped in his blankets, revealing nothing but her head and a bit of her neck. She motioned with her head for him to sit next to her and when he did she finally spoke.

"Adrien's the prince isn't he?“

"What – how,“ Nino was confused but when Alya glared at him he released a meek 'Yes'.

"How did you-"

"Figure it out? Well, he came over to have a date with Marinette and I saw him, it's not too difficult o connect that.“

"Oh.“

"Yeah, _oh_. My best friend's being courted by a prince without even knowing it.“

"You're also getting courted by a prince without even knowing it,“ Nino grinned.

"You used to be a prince, you're not prince if your brother's a king. Also, you told me like the third time you saw me.“

Nino chuckled before returning to the topic. “That's why I was pissed at him that day, I told him many times to tell her, that it was unfair and that she should know but he wouldn't tell her. Every time he said he would, he chickened out.“

Alya was fuming and he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, or well on the bundle of blankets on her shoulder. "When is he planning to tell her?“

"I have no idea, I haven't talked to him about it at all.“

"But that's not the only thing he's hiding, is it?“

"No, it's not. When did you realise it?“

"The time he came for you. What was that about anyway? Where's Fea and why is there trouble and why was it so important that the royal guard needed to be there?“

"Fea is the capital of my kingdom, Xandria. And I'll tell you the story soon, just not right now.“

"But, Nino-"

"I know, you want to help. But I can't say anything yet.“

"Okay, I'll lend you a shoulder when you need one, okay?“

"Thank you.“

"Now, get me some clothes, I have a word I need to give to the prince.“

...

Adrien doesn't get screamed at often. On rare occasions when he pissed his father off, he got yelled at a little, but never screamed at. Especially not screamed at by a woman dressed in a man's clothes (specifically ones that looked like Nino's).

"You will tell my best friend and you will do it now!“

"I can't just burst into her house and tell her 'Oh hey, I'm the prince', that's not how I want to break the news.“

"Newsflash, _Agreste_ , you should have,“ she raised her arms in mock quotations, " _broken the news_ ,“ and then folded them across her chest, "as soon as you saw her!“

Adrien stared at her incredulously, not knowing what to say to calm her down.

"I'll tell her,“ he said quietly.

"When? Before or after the wedding bells?“

"Listen, Alya-was it? I am perfectly capable of letting Marinette know and I will, just give me some time I can't just-"

"But you know who can just go out and tell her?“ Alya pointed to herself.

"That's right, me. And if you don't find a way to tell her in the next 48 hours, I will.“

"But 48 hours is-"

"A lot more than you deserve.“

"But-"

"Listen to me and listen carefully. Marinette is the sweetest girl I know. A girl who has _never_ courted anybody because she was stuck caring for herself after her parents died. She's been alone for a long time, only had me as a friend and if she finds out by herself she'll be more alone than she ever was. When you tell her, she'll be angry but more than that she will be _hurt_. If she happens to hear it from someone else, or realise it, it will hurt her even more. And the sooner you tell her the less it will hurt her.“

"Yes, she'll stop believing you and you will have to fight to have her back, but she deserves to know, she deserves better than lies and untold truths, Adrien. I will not sit back and watch you break my best friend apart. I love Marinette and she deserves the absolute best and you know very well that is not what you're giving her.“

"You're right, I'll do my best to tell her, thank you for giving me some time.“

"I hate to say it, but good luck. I haven't seen Marinette as happy as she's been with you in ages and I hope you can make that stay.“

"I'll do my best.“

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How are you doing?


	5. Something you tell to anybody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry.

When Marinette went to bed that night, she couldn't fall asleep no matter how much she twisted and turned in her sheets. Conversations from the date were repeating themselves again and again in her mind and the feeling of Adrien's lips on hers seemed to be everlasting. She couldn't see what time it was, but if she were to guess it had to be somewhere around 2 a.m. where she decided she would replay the evening in her mind one more time before falling asleep.

"How are you so good with baking? God even at the castle we don't have pastries _this_ good?“

She preened under the praise. "Thank you, Adrien. My father grew up in a family of bakers so I couldn't help but go through his recipe books and learn everything I remember him making.“

Marinette pointed to the star-shaped mini cakes sitting on a plate. "Those were his favourite and he made them at least once a month. Except in his recipe, blueberries weren't written but I specifically remember them always being filled with blueberries because my mum would tease him that that was his favourite fruit because the colour of it is identical to her hair.“

She smiled fondly at the memory of her mother smacking her father on the shoulder while he would mumble for her to stop, quietly, as if thinking he just wants her to hear it and how red his ears would get whenever her mother teased him in general.

"So you inherited your mother's hair colour?“

She looked up at him and nodded. "Oh, yes. I look very much like my mother and very little like my father.“

When Marinette got up from her seat, Adrien's eyes followed her curiously when she pulled out a sheet covered rectangle.

"I always keep it in the cabinet because the paint began fading when it was displayed,“ she carried it over to the table removing the sheet and turning it towards him. Two figures stared back at Adrien, with alarmingly different heights.

The woman was petite in her build, her shoulders narrow and her waist slim. Her fingers were slim where she was holding on to her husband's arm, but when he looked at her face, he felt like he was looking at an older version of Marinette. Though the woman chin and cheekbones had a sharper angle to them than Marinette's did, her hair and her eyes matched Marinette's perfectly in colour and the soft look she had overall made the two resemble even more.

The man stood above the woman, probably three head taller but somehow, he was the opposite of his wife. His shoulder wide and chest bulky were a complete opposite to the soft edges his face had. He seemed to be a contrast himself, where if you were to look at his body and height you'd get scared easily but just one look at his face shattered that whole facade. When he glanced at the way the man he was smiling, he felt familiar with it and immediately pointed it out to Marinette.

"Your smile is the same as his,“ he glanced up at her and the words seemed to make her smile right away.

"Really?“ she asked through a toothy grin. "I've never been told that.“

He looked back at the painting and then at Marinette and the resemblance of their smiles was uncanny. "You look a lot like your mother but your smile is definitely your father's.“

"That makes me happy. People always said I was the spitting image of her, but I want to carry a bit of him with me at all times, too. It's an added reason for me choosing to label myself as a witch rather than a wizard.“

Adrien's eyebrows raised slightly but came down just as quickly. "Oh.“

"Why so surprised?“

"Well, the thought of wanting to look like my parents never crossed me.“

"Oh, I was just happy as a child whenever somebody would point out I looked like them. But the thought got immensely stronger after their death, I guess.“

"If you don't mind me asking,“ Adrien said, uncertain. "What happened to them?“

"Remember how I told you they used this place as a hideout because they escaped?“

Adrien nodded his head.

"Well, as soon as they moved here they realised the town was much more accepting than theirs had been. People in the town of Mii were usually the ones who led protests about the treatment of those who could control magic being unfair and they didn't seem to mind that my mom and dad were a wizard and witch and were together. My mom told me when I was little, they hosted a surprise wedding for the two of them, she said it was the second-best day of her life.“

"The first was you being born then.“

"Yes,“ Marinette smiled fondly, “they both said it a lot. How I was the best thing they happened to them and that I was the only person they loved more than each other. I cried when I was 6 because of it 'cause I thought dad was cheating on mom when he said he loved me more.“

Adrien chuckled as Marinette giggled.

"Well, after the town accepted them, they decided to show their gratitude. They began to lead protests and show the royalty how unfair they were being treated by those who had nothing to do with magic. One time, they even got invited to the castle, my mom, my dad and a couple of the townspeople,“

Adrien's eyes widened but Marinette's were too stuck on her parents' faces to notice that.

"I don't remember what happened, but they had dinner with the former king and after that, the Act of equality was released from the castle.“

"But wasn't that 40 years ago?“

"Yes, it was before we were born. My parents escaped in their teens and began protesting when they were in their twenties. I was born when my mother turned 32 apparently I was a big surprise for everybody,“ Marinette giggled.

"Anyway, they kept participating in protest until more and more Acts were written, but it was when the first Law of discrimination was written that they began to have problems. It seemed that a nobility family was very against befriending witches, wizards, shapeshifters and fairies.“

Her eyes glistened over, a layer of unspilled tears threatening to fall. "So they decided to rid off the ones leading the protest to make the others fear them and hide. Their grand plan was setting fire to the building in which the protesters slept in when they were protesting gin the capital and collecting votes for their next petition. I was there back then too, I had barely turned 8 years old.“

Adrien knew what story Marinette was going to tell so he came closer and placed her hands in his over the portrait sitting in her lap. The action made her let out a bawl, her tears falling onto their hands. He spoke with a hush: "You don't have to say it if you don't wish to.“

"No, it's okay,“ she released one of her hands and wiped her tears hastily. "I haven't told this to anyone, ever, really.“

When she placed her hand back in his he intertwined their fingers, silently waiting for her to continue until she took a few deep breaths and kept telling the story.

"I remember waking up to the sound of people screaming, crying and yelling for help. I saw a huge light outside of the window and a huge plank of wood fell in the corner of the room. My dad was in the corner of the room crying while brewing some sort of potion while my mum was reading through her spellbook quickly.“

"When they noticed I was awake, I began crying asking them to tell me what was going on. Then, my mother sent me out on a stool and placed her spellbook in my arms. My father spilt the potion he was brewing all over the stool and my dress and suddenly I was floating in the air, crying while my mom stroked my cheeks comfortingly. When she calmed me down she told me: ' _Sweetheart, remember we love you more than everything in this world, more than each other._ ' while my dad kept repeating ' _I love you, I love you_ ' while crying even worse than I was crying before.“

Marinette was sobbing into his shoulder now and while he usually cared about keeping himself presentable, he couldn't care less about the mess she must have been making on his shirt.

"They, my mum mumbled a spell and a huge bubble was surrounding me, taking me higher. I realised immediately that they were leading me out the building through the hole in the roof and I kept screaming for them to come too, but I was too young to understand that they didn't have spells or potions strong enough for that.“

"High from the air, I could see the fire swallow my parents' room, _our_ room but I never once heard them scream in pain. Even as I could detect the screams coming from the building, especially ones of people I knew, I never once heard the two of them scream and somehow that makes it worse.“

Marinette's sobbing grew louder and Adrien could barely understand what she was saying with her mouth facing his shoulder directly. "Because even in their last moments, their most painful moments, they were thinking of _me_ and not wanting to hurt _me_ as if they knew their screaming would haunt me for the rest of my life.“

She let out a few lout sobs before she whimpered quietly her shaking shoulder calming down and taking a deep breath and leaning away from Adrien.

"Oh, Marinette, I'm so sorry,“ he said and Marinette saw tear traces on his face and she smiled. It didn't reach her eyes which were still glistening with tears, but she smiled softly at him.

"It's okay it's not your fault. The bubble led me to Alya's place and I've been with her ever since. I suppose you know how the story goes from then on. Thirty protesters died that night, along with my parents.“

"After that, the young king freaked out, found out who the family was and gave them a death sentence. He announced to the people that whoever treats a person who can wield magic unfairly, will face the same punishment as that family.“

Adrien cupped Marinette cheeks from where he was kneeling in front of her chair. She removed the portrait from her lap and placed in on the table, looking back at Adrien.

"I'm sorry,“ he whispered.

"Again,“ she smiled. "It's not your fault.“

"Huh,“ he said, an expression Marinette would only call smug on his face.

"What?“ she asked, intrigued.

He leaned towards her, centimetres between their lips. "You're pretty even when you cry.“

"Adrien,“ she said, embarrassed as she pushed him away and measly attempted to hide her burning cheeks.

"Ah, my mistake,“ he said in a serious tone. "You look gorgeous even while crying.“

"Stop it,“ she smacked him while looking away and suddenly he was standing on his feet, leaning above her.

"Make me,“ he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.

Marinette raised an eyebrow before she pulled him by the collar and kissed him forcefully. She hummed when she swallowed his gasp of surprise, feeling satisfied.

When she leaned back, her eyebrow was still raised as he looked away shyly.

"You weren't so coy when you kissed me earlier,“ she smirked even more and Adrien gasped dramatically.

"Who are you and what have you done to my lady,“ he yelled and it made Marinette giggle despite the thumping in her chest at the nickname. At the back of her mind, she wondered how many times she'd have to hear the nickname o stop reacting to it.

"What do you mean your lady,“ she clutched her chest and gasped passionately. "You have a lady?“

Adrien grinned. "Yes, of course, only the most beautiful for a handsome fella such as myself.“

Marinette scoffed and covered her ears. "That's enough, you're going to make me wince from embarrassment for you, ugh.“

Adrien chuckled and pulled her hand into his, making her stand up. "My beauty makes you wince?“

"Stop it, idiot.“

He pulled his hands around her waist, making her heart beat faster, but unknowingly distracted her from that with his next line. " _Rawr_ y? I can't stop it ain't easy being _purr_ fect.“

She wiggled out of his arms and ran away. "Cat puns?! Enough is enough!“

Adrien caught her from behind, hugging her close and she leaned into his chest subconsciously.

He pulled her hair behind her ear and kissed her cheek, before slowly moving his mouth and kissing her behind her ear making her squeal and kick his arms where he was holding her around her waist.

When he licked that same spot she turned around and stared at him, furiously blushing and wide-eyed. Her gaze softened as soon as she met his own, seemingly sad.

"What's wrong, Adrien?“

"It's about time for me to go,“ he shrugged.

She teased: "And that makes you sad?“

"Well, since I won't see you for five days until our next date, yes it does.“

"You can always come by sooner.“

"I doubt I'll have the time, I made time for this by moving some of my work for the next couple of days which may not have been a good choice. I even have to get some work done now.“

"Aw,“ she twined her fingers in his hair and caressed his cheek, "my poor baby.“

Adrien's ears went red but he nuzzled into her hand and whispered: "Yours,“ his eyes closed.

"Mine,“ she repeated and tiptoed to peck him quickly.

His eyes opened instantly before he pulled her closer by the neck and kissed her again.

...

Miss Hansen entered her shop the next day. "Hi Marinette, how are you doing on this lovely day?“

"Great, thank you for asking. Would you join me for a cup of tea?“

"Oh, dear, that's why I came.“

Before long, the two of them were sipping their teas and munching on the blueberry filled pastries Marinette made.

"How are you these days, dear?“

"You already asked me how I was. How are you?“

"Oh, there's no need to ask me, you know. I meant how is it going with that blond boy of yours.“

"We're courting,“ Marinette said with a blush.

"Ah, finally.“

"What do you mean?“

"You've finally allowed somebody other than your fox friend to enter your heart, that makes me relieved.“

Marinette hummed because she knew it was true. She kept to herself for a long time, intending not to get hurt but if she was being honest, until Adrien arrived, she often felt lonely. After her workday was over she'd find herself petting Tikki's back and sighing because Alya would be busy on that particular day.

It was also true that she opened up her heart for Adrien. As much as he was just a new addition in her life, she trusted him a lot. Even this soon, she knew there was nothing she couldn't tell him.

"It's soon, isn't it?“ Miss Hansen broke the silence.

"A month away?“ Marinette questioned.

"35 days to be precise,“ Miss Hansen corrected.

...

When Alya came in on a three-day mark from Adrien's date, Marinette noticed her mood was strangely off. She seemed distracted and... _reluctant_ somehow and though it didn't make sense after a while of talking she couldn't help but point it out.

"Alya what's wrong?“ she asked when Alya got distracted again.

"Hmm?“ Alya asked, not hearing what Marinette said.

"You're distracted and worried about something. What's up?“

"The sky?“ Alya said with a grimace earning an unimpressed look from Marinette.

"Is it Nino? Did something happen?“

Alya waved her hands in the air. "No, no, Nino...he's great, but...“

Marinette encouraged her with a hand on her shoulder but otherwise didn't make a sound.

"I found out something, something I should tell you, immediately but-," she groaned in frustration.

"I don't know how to break the news since I know you'll be hurt, you'll probably be devastated and I don't want my words to be the cause of that even if it's not my actions.“

Marinette watched her friend struggle with words for a couple of moments before she looked at her with a sudden look of determination.

"When was the last time you saw Adrien?“

Marinette's expression morphed into one of pure confusion, "Adrien? I saw him on our date on Sunday,“ and then it shifted into one of panic while she clutched Alya's arms in her own. "Wait did something happen to him?“

Alya huffed in what seemed anger before she scowled. "No, but it's about to.“

"What do you me-"

"Adrien hasn't come by at all since your date?“

"No, why?“

Alya's eyes searched Marinette's before she seemed to be lost in thought as if trying to figure something out. She was squinting when she looked back at Marinette again.

"What about Plagg? Did he come at all since Sunday?“

"No, I haven't seen him at all. But what are you trying to get at? First Adrien now Plagg what the hell is going on Alya?“

"That _bastard_ ,“ Alya whispered under her breath.

"Why are you calling him a bastard? Please tell me what's going on already.“

"You'll be calling him that too, trust me.“

Alya stared into Marinette's eyes until Marinette rose onto her feet and went towards the door. Since they were best friends Alya knew exactly what Marinette was doing when she got up and she eyed her friend as she twisted the 'OPEN' sign and walked back, sitting in front of her again.

"Talk.“

"There's no easy way to say this, Mari.“

"Then just say it, I don't like seeing you like this and calling Adrien a bastard when I don't know what's going on.“

Alya looked hurt as she glanced at Marinette and that only made Marinette more confused.

"Have you ever, no, do you know anything about Adrien?“

"What do you mean, anything?“

"Simple stuff like, where he's from, what family members he has, does he have any pets, what he does for a living,“ Alya trailed off.

Marinette had a weird feeling growing in her stomach as she thought about her friend's question. When she thought about it, she couldn't help but admit she knew very little about him, too little for the time they've known each other.

"I know he has a father, he asked for a potion for him when he first came in.“

"That's all you know about his family?“

"Why are you saying it like that?“

"Don't you think that's weird? That's just plain stuff, something you tell to anybody. What about his job, what do you know?“

Marinette's head was already agreeing with Alya and she didn't like it one bit. "He works at the castle,“ she practically whispered, feeling ashamed she only knew that.

"What position? What exactly does he do, where does he get all that money that he very obviously has.“

She pointed to the ring on Marinette's hand and then to the earrings. "How did he get the royal jeweller to custom make you courting gifts?“

Marinette didn't know. She didn't know the answers to her friend's questions and it made her scared. The idea of doubting Adrien never crossed her mind but it was staring right back at her as her friend kept pointing out how little she knew and she realised how much she should have known.

"Adrien, he...“ Alya was grimacing again and Marinette thought it was preparing her for whatever Alya could have said, but as soon as she said the words she felt a punch to her gut that nothing could have prepared her for.

"He's the prince.“

"What?“ Marinette asked as if waiting for an explanation, as if waiting for Alya saying that she was kidding, but her voice showed how hurt she already felt because she knew. She knew her friend could never lie about such a thing, and she felt absolutely betrayed.

"W-what? When, how?“

"I don't know if he purposely hid it at first, but once you didn't know he was scared to say it to you. The reason you don't know anything about his family is that his father is the king. The reason he said he works at the castle is that he does, but not like you would have thought. He's preparing for the coronation, but you, you're being courted by the prince and he didn't even tell you.“

"Oh _God_ ,“ Marinette said. Suddenly the idea of Adrien courting her was revolting, suddenly everything they've done was a lie and she didn't know whether to believe any of the moments she had with him.

"When did you-, when did you find out.“

"Sunday.“

"What?“

"I saw him for the first time in your home, as your Adrien. But he was also the prince I saw around the castle with Nino, his royal guard.“

"Oh,“ Marinette said, her eyes falling to the floor.

"But, how did he-why did he come _here_ , how does a prince know about this little witch shop in a town? How did he ever find out I was babysitting his cat?“

"You were never babysitting his cat.“

"What?“

"Think about it, have you ever seen Adrien and Plagg in the same room?“

Marinette's eyes widened and she gaped.

"Plagg was always awfully smart for a cat,“ she mumbled when the realisation hit her straight in her face.

"Oh, god,“ she grabbed her head in frustration.

"Adrien's Plagg.“

Alya nodded.

"That _bastard_.“

"Told you.“

...

It turned out closing the shop was a smart choice after the words she heard. Alya comforted her for a bit, offering to take a break from work but Marinette knew how much it cost for a newspaper anchor to stop work for a day so she sent her off. She cried a little, but other than that sat at the table staring at it in pure shock.

No matter how much she racked her brain it didn't make sense, anything Adrien had said or done in the time she knew him. Why he came, why he sat at the shop, why he-why he sat there and listened to the things she said, without permission. God, she even spoke about him, in front of him to Alya.

She felt embarrassed, mortified but most of all she was hurt because it was the first time she'd opened up to anyone and it all shattered after such a short while.

When Adrien came in the shop, panting as if he ran a mile, she didn't even look at him.

"My lady,“ he said.

"Don't call me that,“ she spat back, still looking at the floor.

He sat in front of her, taking her hands into his own before she got up in a rush, pulling her hands back forcefully.

"Don't touch me!“ she screamed and looked at him for the first time, a flash of a hurt expression on his face.

"It's not fun being the hurt one, huh?“

"Marinette, look-"

"You will not speak.“

"But I-"

"Shut up and listen to me!“ he stared back at her, at her growingly exasperated expression and the tears that stained her cheeks. He was the cause of that and it hurt him to even think that he was a reason of Marinette's tears, let alone be the reason for them.

"Was it fun? Sitting in my shop, knowing damn well what you're doing? Listening every time I spoke about you, invading my privacy like that? Has it ever crossed your mind how wrong that was?“

"Listen, Mari-"

"Let's not even mention the fact that you began courting me without telling me that you're a cat, that you're the freaking prince, Adrien. Do you think, I, a witch and a wizard's daughter would have agreed to court somebody where I knew damn well such a person wouldn't be accepted.“

"That's not true.“

"Oh it is, Adrien and you know that. The family of royalty who killed my parents still exists among the royalty whose circle you're in and you're about to be coronated so you wouldn't raise your voice to enrage them right before since they must approve of you by then.“

"I would definitely raise my voice if anybody was to show you disrespect and you know that.“

"No, I don't! You haven't told me a single thing about yourself at all. And I've told you everything, Adrien, everything. Do you know how many people know the fire story?“

Adrien shook his head.

"Two,“ Marinette raised a finger and pointed to herself, "me,“ and then to Adrien, "and you.“

Adrien's eyes widened and when he attempted to speak again Marinette mumbled a spell. He realised quickly he wasn't able to let out a single sound, let alone speak. He looked betray as he stood there with his mouth wide open as he stared back at her.

"What? You can sit in my lap in your cat form and stay perfectly silent as you listen to me speak about you but now you want to raise your voice. Well, Adrien, you don't get to now. It's too late now.“

"I've opened my heart to you and you deliberately chose not to show me one piece of you. Leave.“

Adrien shook his head adamantly but Marinette raised her voice again.

"Leave!“ she choked on a bawl and a sea of tears ran down her face.

He reluctantly got up and left the room, glancing back at her. Oh, how he wished he could take things back.


	6. I'll say it back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't help myself but update it this quickly since I don't want them o fight. (Don't get used to it, though.)
> 
> On another note, for the readers that are keeping up with the story, first of all, thank you, second of all I've edited the entire work from the first chapter to fifth before writing this one. I fixed the quotations issue (took me a whole hour) and edited a few typos here and there, checked some grammar, fixed some commas. No change to the plot, just minor details here and there.
> 
> (After editing it the work was at 20200 words and I feel bad for disrupting such a beautiful number with this chapter but unfortunately, it's done. Couldn't get this chapter to an even number no matter how much I tried.)
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter!

After Adrien left, Marinette realised she might have overreacted a bit. And by a bit she meant a lot. She was the type of person usually who tended to exaggerate situations and act too hastily on her emotions without thinking twice about it. This is why she was having a guilt trip on her bed, still moping around as a day passed.

However, as guilty as she felt, it hadn’t crossed her mind to think about why Adrien would have done such a thing or to think of forgiving him at all. In her mind, an excuse for his behaviour did not exist and she hadn’t dared to think of a way to give him one.

As much as it hurt her to admit it, she was beginning to miss Adrien dearly even if not seeing him for a day was common. An idea of their argument bringing an unmentioned end to their relationship crossed her mind once and ever since then, the anger dissipated from her body and she’s only felt sad since. Her eyes kept falling to the jewellery laying on her nightstand, having taken it off as soon as Adrien walked out of the door and she couldn’t help but disgust the thought of ever returning it.

Not because she cared about materialistic things (as a matter of fact, Adrien being rich seemed to only freak her out rather than excite her) but because that was somehow evidence, proof of their relationship and a memory she would like to look back on if this really was the relationship’s end.

It wasn’t until Alya came that she stopped moping around. Or well, was _forced_ to stop moping around.

“Get up,” Alya patted her thigh as she sat down next to her on the bed.

Marinette just groaned in response and turned her back to Alya.

“Oh, come on.”

“But why?” Marinette whined and her friend chuckled from how childish she was behaving.

“Because I know exactly what you are doing and I’m not letting you do it.”

“What is it that I’m doing exactly?” Marinette raised an eyebrow.

“Lying in bed, guilt-tripping yourself from overreacting, yet still not thinking rationally about the situation and wanting to resolve it.”

Marinette gaped at Alya.

“But how did you know I overreacted?” Marinette asked.

“You’re my best friend, silly. Of course, I knew.”

She got up from the bed and pulled Marinette’s arms to make her get up. “Come on now, you’re going to come down with me and we’re going to discuss this situation like the two adults that we are and think of a solution.”

“But-“

“No buts.”

“What are you, my mother?”

Alya just hummed in confirmation making Marinette groan once again.

…

Alya sat her down at the two-person table and gave her a cup of the blackest cup of coffee Marinette had seen in her life. The shapeshifter knew exactly what she was doing, as the coffee was going to get Marinette’s skin to buzz because she dreaded drinking coffee and it was also a way to get her to wake up from her depressed state.

After she practically forced her to drink at least half the cup, Marinette gave her a brief, yet detailed summary of how the conversation went down. And maybe, just maybe, Marinette was beginning to realise her mistakes one by one.

“So you’re telling me that you didn’t give him a chance, not even once to let him explain?”

She shook her head, ashamed only a little.

“And when he tried to, you spelled him so he can’t even do it?”

She nodded her head.

“Oh, Mari.”

“I know it’s wrong now, but I was so caught up in emotion and hurt, Alya. I couldn’t bear listening to him say anything because I thought he might say something which would hurt more than the fact he hid those secrets from me did.”

“I know, sweetheart and I understand. But do you not realise how unfair that is?”

Marinette stared at her, confusion in her eyes.

“You got to say everything that was on your mind, tell him how betrayed you felt and show him how mad you are. But you never once gave him the opportunity to say what was on his heart.”

Marinette’s expression softened as the feeling of guilt increased in her stomach, climbing up her throat and making it hard to breathe.

“And I know you haven’t thought about it properly, why he would hide such a thing from you, what’s the reason behind it at all.”

Marinette narrowed her eyes making Alya raise her hands in defence.

“I’m not saying there is an excuse for what he did. There may never be. But maybe, there’s something he could tell you which would make things more understandable, if only a bit. _Maybe_ there’s something he could say that would let your heart stop hurting and let you two move on from this. Because I know you want to.”

Marinette looked down at her hands as she fiddled with the straps of her dress, twirling them in her grip.

“I know you want to continue the relationship you had with him because he made you feel _wonderful_ , didn’t he?”

Marinette looked up at her with a soft smile. “He did.”

“Now I want you to think about him for a little, because I did blame him a lot, and as much as it is his fault when I looked at it a bit differently I couldn’t help but forgive him a little.”

Marinette just stared back at her, with a curious look, urging her to speak.

“You said it yourself, right? How does a prince know about your witch shop?”

“Well, he _was_ Plagg and he was here for a month before he came as a human, I guess.”

“Yes, exactly. But why would he come here as a human at all?”

“He needed a potion?”

Alya gave her an unimpressed look. “That’s all you can say, really?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Do you really think, if a prince needed a potion, he wouldn’t have somebody at the castle capable of doing it?”

“Right,” Marinette couldn’t help but admit. “But why would he come then?”

“Because he fell for you.”

Her face instantly flushed and the lump in her throat she felt from guilt was instantly replaced with something else.

“Oh, don’t blush like you two didn’t already confess to each other.”

This caused Marinette to blush even more. “Um, actually, we didn’t.”

“Seriously? You just began courting without at the very least saying ‘I like you’?”

Marinette just nodded her head, unable to speak from embarrassment.

“Still, it goes without saying that he’s into you. I’d even bet he loves you.”

“ _Stop_.”

“Anyway,” Alya giggled as her friend’s ears went red, “he fell for you and he wanted you to fall for him too, he wanted you to love him too.” It was Alya wiggling her eyebrows as she said the word ‘love’ that got Marinette into full tomato mode as she smacked her friend multiple times.

“He probably even bonded with you without knowing it.”

“You think he did?”

“Most likely. When you met him, did you feel a sense of attraction much bigger than you’ve ever felt for anyone?”

Marinette hummed as she thought about their first meaning, probably two months back already. God, how did so much time pass so quickly?

“Actually, yes. I even thought if he was using an Affection Potion for a second there. I felt like I knew him even as I was aware of the fact I was seeing him for the first time.”

In truth, the feeling she had for Adrien even at their first meeting was too strong to be explained and there was no reason for physical attraction to create a feeling so strong. She thought about that one time a handsome gardener called Luka entered her shop only to ask about the flowers she was growing out in the garden, but even if she thought he was handsome he didn’t quite make her chest beat as loudly as Adrien did. She didn’t know much about love, well at least not about the romantic kind, and for the first time in her life, she felt she did.

Alya hummed in thought, rummaging through her brain, trying to find another way to confirm if there was a bond between Adrien and Marinette. “What about the idea of physical separation. Does the idea of losing him scare you?”

“I do miss Adrien when I don’t see him for a couple of days, but I think that’s normal since I like him?” Marinette cringed at the way she sad ‘liked’, the word being far too mild to express her feelings for Adrien.

Suddenly, the idea of her crying at the thought of Plagg leaving because she thought the prince found a bride crossed her mind, how devastated she felt on the sole idea of never seeing the cat again. She didn’t want to tell Alya exactly how much she reacted, so she only decided to tell her it scared her when it happened (didn’t happen?), leaving out the details.

“Then you two have definitely bonded.”

“So what you’re saying is he only liked me because his cat liked me?” Marinette asked, her voice laced with disappointment.

“No, no, no no,” Alya said frantically. “You’re getting this all wrong.”

“When a shapeshifter is in his or her animal form, they are mainly present. I’d say only 10% of the time animal instinct takes over, but other than that we control our body perfectly. For a bond to feel formed we need to feel…” Alya looked at her as if trying to find a word she couldn’t think of.

“Cherished?”

“Yes, that. Cherished. And loved, I suppose. We need to think ‘Ah, this person is nice’ or ‘I really like this person’ for a bond to form. A bond also forms without us making it, because a bond just follows the heart, it happens because we want it to happen.”

Marinette formed her mouth in a silent ‘Oh’.

“A bond also happens when the other person treats the animal nicely, lets the animal feel the affection that a person has for them.”

Marinette smiled to herself. It seemed she loved Adrien for more than she had known.

_Loved? Oh my, she **loves** him?!_

“On another hand, I want you to think about him a little, about how he showed you his affection towards you and about the feelings you definitely have for him.”

As soon as Alya said it, memories started playing in her mind. Every lingering touch between the two, no matter which form Adrien was in, the way he’d let her pet him and cuddle him all she wants, relaxing into the touch and refusing anybody else’s. The way he looked at her and showered her with compliment after compliment, making her feel good in her own skin like she hadn’t in a long time.

She thought about the things she’s told him about her parents, the truth behind everything and how much she trusted him enough to say it, to reveal the sadness that followed her since childhood. She could almost feel his strong arms around her again and his soft gaze. He hadn’t comforted her because he pitied her, he hadn’t looked at her like _that_ because he felt pity. He did that because he felt it too because he cared deeply about her as much as she did for him.

The gifts laying on her nightstand crossed her mind and she couldn’t help but think how utterly perfect they were for her. She’d never dreamed of courting anybody yet Adrien carved out a dream she never knew existed right out of her heart, bringing custom made presents which only _he_ could give her.

When she found out to truth, she lied to herself thinking finding that out meant that every moment she shared with him was untrue, was fake, while it was the opposite. She wanted to have a reason to deem al interactions with him false in her anger, but her heart knew all too well.

She loved Adrien.

And Adrien loved her too.

Suddenly, the fact that Adrien hid something important from her turned into a minor thing. The lack of trust vanished, anger and gloom going with it too and the only thing she wanted was to talk to Adrien. To tell him she already forgave him, to tell him it didn’t matter.

But how is she going to tell him anything at all? He must be hurt from her words, he probably never wants to walk through the front door again. He probably never wants to see her again.

“I screwed up, Alya.”

“You did.”

“How can I fix it?”

“Only time can tell.”

Marinette sighed.

“You should probably let him cool down for a couple of days, let him regret. And then, when he comes again, let him say his thought when you both have them collected. Let him apologize and tell him you’re sorry too. And then, together and only together, decide what happens next.”

“Okay,” Marinette agreed.

After a couple of seconds of silence, Marinette sighed in what sounded like fond exasperation.

“You really are my mother,” she giggled and Alya giggled along.

“I know.”

Marinette smiled as she thought.

“Oh, and one more thing.”

She hummed in question.

“Bonds are rarely unromantic.”

…

As Marinette decided she would let a few days pass, she threw herself into work. After all, the Dupain-Cheng family was known for their workaholic habits so none of the regular customers found it weird when Marinette would tell them that their potion was going to be over the same day when they ordered it.

Still, when Marinette finished her shop-related tasks she’d entertain herself by finding something to do around the house or in her garden. In the span of three days, she managed to clean her cottage five times, even cleaning the attic for an entire afternoon (she was surprised how quickly time passed, considering it hadn’t been cleaned since her parents were alive).

Though she kept her jewellery tucked in their individual boxes into her nightstand, whenever the day would come to an end, she would put on her ladybug ring and stare at it until she could no longer keep her eyes open, the night’s darkness lulling her to sleep.

And as busy as she kept herself, those three days took forever to pass. It seemed like her mind was counting each second as a minute and she just decided she was going to go through all the boxes in the attic when a buzz all too familiar was heard in front of her door.

When she tried to pinpoint from where that sound was familiar a picture of three men dressed in armour and red and gold and she knew instantly what it was. The town was buzzing in excitement and the last time the town was buzzing like this, an order from the castle arrived.

The rational part of her brain said it was just an announcement, but a gut feeling told her this wasn’t just a note sent from the castle. Something told her this was the prince.

 _Her_ prince.

She quickly put on her black coat and tucked the red hood over her head, closing the door behind her. When she exited through the door she realised people weren’t heading towards the main square, rather they were awkwardly standing about a 100 metres away from her, staring at something at the distance.

The curious gazes from the townsmen were telling her all too well what was going on and she had to bite her cheek to hide her grin. The sound of horses’ gallop was heard and a white horse approached her before she could even see it.

When she looked up, green eyes that she knew all too well greeted her and she couldn’t help but stare in awe, speechless.

She let her hood down as she teased: “Prince on a white horse, huh. Don’t you think you’re being a bit cliché?”

When Adrien came down from the horse, his expression was one of discomfort and only then did Marinette take in the gravity of the situation. What she heard wasn’t a gallop of _a_ horse, what she heard was a gallop of horses. There seemed to be an endless sea of men on horses behind Adrien. She suddenly noticed Adrien doesn’t usually wear shining and silvery clothes, Adrien doesn’t usually wear _armour_.

Adrien wasn’t here to give her an apology; Adrien was here to give her a personal announcement, probably one that would break her heart to pieces.

“Well, considering who I’m speaking to, you and I are the very opposite of cliché,” Adrien smiled but it was tight and unrecognizable.

“What’s going on?” Marinette asked desperately, searching through Adrien’s eyes with her own.

“I wanted to come by and explain myself to you, y’ know?” Adrien scratched behind his neck awkwardly before he took both Marinette’s hands into his own. A part of her mind told her to push his hands away but all she was capable of doing was staring back at him and squeezing his hands.

“But there’s…there’s been a situation and I couldn’t have come sooner and I can’t exactly stay right now either.” He grimaced.

“Adrien, please tell me what is going on,” Marinette pleaded, her voice disturbed and laced with alarm.

“Sierma announced war on us and it’s a personal grudge that I must go there and resolve it myself. With Nino. If that makes sense?”

“You’re going to war?” she asked, her voice somehow even more upset, even more worried.

“I really think a war won’t come to place but I want to,” he tucked his arm into his pocket and pulled out the bell she saw many times.

He placed it gently into her hand and then took them again into his own, clutching them close to his chest and then kissing her knuckles once, twice.

“I really want to spend an hour with you and talk to you and try to get you to forgive me because you have every right to be angry and every right not to forgive me, but currently I don’t have the time for that.”

“Still, I want you to know that this is yours,” he placed her hands in front of her again.

“You’re the only maiden in this kingdom that can have it.”

“And I want you to know that I lo-“

His words were cut off by Marinette pressing her finger to his lips.

“You will not say it right now.”

Adrien’s eyebrows furrowed and he looked like he was about to speak again when she began speaking again.

“You’ll say it when you come back in one piece.”

Adrien’s gaze softened.

“And I’ll say it back because I feel the same way.”

Adrien smiled and it finally felt right, the stress was still obvious in his demeanour but one would have to be a fool not to notice the happiness that sentence made him feel.

A sudden idea crossed Marinette’s mind and she reached behind her neck. A small necklace with a green pendant revealed itself, one Adrien thought was familiar in a weird way.

She mumbled something where she was holding the bell and the pendant and then she motioned for Adrien to lean down before she clasped it around his neck.

“’ S a good thing my father and you both have green eyes.”

After a second of wearing it, Adrien gasped, strong thumping below his neck. “That’s my heartbeat you’re feeling.”

A short man from a near horse yelled: “Your highness, we have to get going.”

Adrien looked annoyed but he leaned down and pecked Marinette’s lips quickly, making her let out an embarrassed yelp, confident when the thumping below his neck got faster.

“When are you coming back?” she asked as she watched him climb his horse with practised ease.

“It takes 12 days of horse riding to get there if we’re lucky. So a month at the very least.”

Marinette hummed in understanding.

“I know this is all confusing, but Alya will probably come and explain the whole situation soon because Nino went to her place when it all went down.”

“Marinette!”

“And there she is,” Adrien said with a smile. The men made way for him to pass, the small man a little to the side from Adrien’s horse.

Before Adrien turned around to leave, Marinette took her dress in her hands and squatted down slightly, imitating a bow. She knew exactly how far off it was from etiquette, yet she knew how endeared Adrien would be. “Goodbye, Your Highness.”

Adrien took off his helmet, pressing it to his chest and bowed his head to her. “See you soon, my lady.”

She watched as her friend neared her side before glancing down the street until all the men disappeared from her view. What was left were the glancing townsmen who kept whispering and sending her looks.

She took a few steps forward and put her hand as high up in the air as she could. “I don’t know if you noticed, but…”

She grinned as she felt the thumping in her palm. “The contest for the prince’s future bride is finished.”

…

When she entered her home with Alya, for a while the both of them kept the silence. They understood each other perfectly and knew that talking would be stalled into the later hours of the evening.

They had lunch together, quieter than ever. Since she knew they were going to stall for God knows how long she found herself sitting down with Tikki in her lap and holding the bell curiously.

She could feel the thumping from inside the bell with her fingertips and it comforted her in a way words couldn’t at the moment. She shook the bell in her hand a couple of times before she got all too curious to get the ring out.

She explored a little before she found the clasp and opened the bell, a white diamond staring back at her. When she looked at it, she smiled unknowingly, untying it from its position and clasping the bel closed.

When she shook it in her arms subconsciously, she realised it no longer made a sound without the ring inside. It seemed suitable in an inexplicable way. The thumping was also no longer present in the bell, centred in the ring.

She placed the ring on her left ring finger and watched it in awe.

It was a simple diamond ring (Marinette freaked out, she was holding a diamond and thought it was simple) and the fact that it was a princess cut that made it all that more exciting.

Unlike the other jewellery she had gotten from Adrien, this one wasn’t custom made; in fact, the ring could be a little slimmer for her tiny fingers. Yet, this ring meant an entirely different thing than those pieces had.

While those signalled she was Adrien’s, this one said she was the prince’s. This one said she was the future queen and if it was for any moment other than this one that fact would have freaked her out, in this particular moment it made her very happy.

She noticed Tikki moving in her lap, nuzzling against the bell she held in her right hand, probably recognising its scent. She quickly tied the bell around Tikki’s neck, Tikki stilling instantly and letting out a happy purr. The sound made her smile and she petted the cat’s back as she kept releasing more.

As she grew more relaxed, the thumping against her ring finger became more apparent, a silent reminder that Adrien was still alive. That Adrien was still fine. She let out a shaky breath.

“That idiot better be okay.”


	7. Become queen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was planning on updating in a week, but my laptop is The World's Shittiest Device™ and has been uncooperative for days. So I was three days late (even if I didn't make any promises to you guys) and am kind of disappointed in myself.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought, that'd be amazing.

When Alya sat down next to her, holding a cup of coffee in her left hand and a cup of tea in her right hand, Marinette knew the conversation they were avoiding for a while was going to happen and immediately she wanted to say she wasn't ready.

She kept quiet though, as Alya placed the cup of tea in her hand and sipped on it for a second too long.

“I’m scared to hear what you’re going to tell me.”

“Will it help if I tell you Adrien is in less danger than Nino?”

Marinette looked at her friend sadly. “No, it really won’t.”

Alya sighed and they sat together in an uncomfortable silence for what could have been hours but were mere minutes.

“Nino told me, that Adrien would forget to tell you the full story at the moment,“ Alya cut the tension in a single second with a fond chuckle, no matter how much she wasn’t feeling like laughing. Marinette joined her with a giggle.

“Adrien said you’d know.” She grinned.

“The story is actually quite simple. Do you know what country Sierma is?”

“Kingdom, you mean,” Marinette teased, she knew how much Alya hated being corrected.

When all she got in response was a raised eyebrow, she continued speaking. “It’s west, right?”

“Well, yes. But that country,” Alya rolled her eyes, “kingdom is the one Nino was born in.”

“Oh, that explains why Adrien said he needs Nino there.”

“Well to tell you why there was a declaration of war, even if it’s not really that,” Marinette’s forehead creased, “I have to tell you their story.”

“In Sierma, the tradition has always been that the king must be a shapeshifter. That isn’t usually pronounced to the people, but in the royal family, it’s inevitable. When Nino was born as a non-shapeshifter, a second male at that, it was clear he wasn’t going to have the crown so his parents thought any training for the crown was useless.”

“He was free of royal duties, even sent to public school rather than having somebody teach him at the castle. His older brother, the king quickly grew jealous of that as he was not free in any way, he didn’t even wish to become king yet it was forced on him when he was so little.”

Marinette let out an ‘Oh’, things were already beginning to make sense in her head.

“When Adrien was born, an alliance was made between Sierma and Netswa, and to seal that alliance it was decided Nino was going to train to be his royal guard. That was the first time Nino’s freedom was taken away from him.”

“When he left his home, even as a royal guard he never lived a burdened life; instead he became friends with Adrien and enjoyed every day at the castle. He hadn’t known it would ensue his brother’s fury when he wrote to him that in a letter.”

“Did he know it made his brother angry?”

“No, not until recent events unfolded. Because his brother was angry, he had somebody watching Nino’s life at all times. That’s how he learned of our courting. As the future king, his wife was decided and assigned to him; he never had a choice to have a happy relationship. But Nino did.”

“So he sent out a carrier pigeon with a threatening letter, he would break the alliance if Nino didn’t begin to live a more,” Alya trailed off, at loss for wording.

“Controlled life?” Marinette questioned.

“Yes. When a responding letter didn’t arrive as soon as he expected it, he lost his mind. He took back his offer and pronounced war.”

“But that-, that’s,” Marinette’s eyes were wide, “insane. I thought we stopped living in a time where people are driven by their desires?”

Alya kept quiet as she glanced out of the window, her coffee cold in her hand.

“He’s sick, isn’t he?”

“Not physically.”

“What happens when they get there? Do they lie to him, what’s the solution?”

“I thought he was going to be thrown off the throne, treated for his illness in their castle and Nino was going to take the throne. I didn’t like the idea one bit so I asked Nino what would happen.”

She looked at Marinette.

“Turns out he has two younger brothers who can take the position. Shapeshifters, taught by the best people in the coun-, kingdom.”

She was smiling when she said it, even if her eyes weren't expressing the same emotion.

Marinette thought about the things Alya said, the story she’d told her. It sounded simple, but it wasn’t in reality. Adrien and Nino would arrive at Fea and talk to somebody who wasn’t in their right mind, that somebody probably surrounded by troops, putting both their lives in danger. Still, the story didn’t exactly make sense. If Nino’s brother wanted to initiate war, what was he waiting for? How come it wasn’t announced to the people, that war was about to take place?

When she asked Alya how come the king hasn’t made an attack her response was this: “Nino’s younger brothers saw it coming. They convinced him that their troops weren’t ready and that they needed to prepare for a month. As soon as a letter from them arrived, Adrien decided they were going to make peace by talking with him personally.”

At Alya’s departure, a couple of words were left ringing in her head.

‘ _Adrien decided._ ’

Adrien was going to the neighbouring kingdom, endangering his life by talking to an insane person in order to put a stop to the war. Even if the threat wasn’t as great as it could’ve been, it didn’t prevent it from being a threat.

‘ _Adrien decided._ ’

And if something were to happen, Adrien would be the first one to take the hit.

That was what his role, a prince’s role encompassed. This wasn’t a one-time thing, this was Adrien whole life. A life of great responsibility, warnings constantly over his head. Soon, that would only worsen, as he is to take the position of king.

Was this what Adrien’s life meant? What the rest of it had to be?

‘ _Adrien decided._ ’

If so, was she capable of standing alongside, just watching?

Was she prepared to be queen?

...

Days after saying a temporary farewell to Adrien passed slowly. Multiple times she found herself wishing she hadn’t done all her work back when she fought with Adrien as she had nothing to do when costumers weren’t at the shop, all her orders finished for the next two weeks. Even extending her work time didn't help much, only keeping her slightly busier than she would have been usually.

New customers kept appearing each day, only to stare at her since the rumour was spread. Whenever she felt eyes on her, they were always stuck on her ring finger. Her senses were always spiked and if it weren’t for the calm thumping where the ring laid, she wouldn’t know what to do.

It was odd, how much the ring calmed her and gave her peace, how something she had on for a week became a necessity so quickly.

Though the ring calmed her, it didn’t stop the questions which repeated themselves over and over again.

“Are you being courted by the prince?”

“Is that the prince’s engagement ring?”

“Will you become queen?”

“When are you getting married?”

“How did you catch the cat?”

“Why did the prince allow for a witch? Is that why the requirement was changed?”

“Why do you seem so familiar with the prince if you didn’t meet him before the contest?”

“How long have you two been courting?”

Every day was a constant repetition of: ‘Yes, we’re courting’, ‘We haven’t discussed that’, ‘This is the engagement ring, yes’ and so on. Sometimes, she didn’t have the strength to answer, so she would give a kind smile even if her ‘guests’ weren’t so kind themselves.

“How did you do it? Come on, tell me. I’ve tried catching that fucking cat so many times, tell me!” a blonde woman screamed upon entrance, startling a couple of the customers. Marinette was left unfazed, unfortunately, this had been a daily occurrence.

“Miss, I need you to calm down,” Marinette said through a sweet smile, spurious but a smile nonetheless.

The woman was standing in front of the counter, slamming her fist against it and staring down at Marinette. The few customers that were there retreated towards the wall, staring at the situation incredulously.

“Just tell me how you did it, no need for keeping secrets now that you are courting,” she said, followed by a snarl unfit for her appearance. She was dressed in a beautiful, expensive-looking coat which covered her dress entirely and her hair was clasped with the brightest of jewels. The earrings she wore matched with the jewellery in her hair and though she looked like she could afford it, she wasn’t wearing much makeup aside from the hint of a pink balm on her lips. Her rage and uncontrolled emotions clashed with her natural beauty and apparent social standing.

“I didn’t do anything special, now, if you would please ca-“ Marinette’s words were cut off, not that it surprised her.

“You must have done _something_ , I’ve tried doing everything!”

“I’m sorry Miss, I really don’t know what to-“

“Do you know who I am?!” she practically screeched and that was the only moment Marinette was left speechless, if only for a second.

She let out a scoff trough a spiteful smile before she answered: “I don’t know who you are, but since I am the one being courted by the prince I doubt I’ll be impressed.”

She heard a chuckle from an elderly woman in the shop and when she glanced at her it was covered with a cough and a fan hiding her blushing face.

“So you base your social standing only on the fact you’re courting the prince?”

“I don’t, but I see you think of yourself higher than others just based on yours.”

The lady let out a ‘Hmph’, turning her head to the side. Briefly, Marinette thought she was behaving quite childishly, especially since she looked to be the same age as her, if not a year or two older.

“You do know anyone can steal your position in a second? You’re a mere witch, all I need to do is get my hands on that ring and you will be forgotten. Plus, it’s much better for somebody of _my_ ,” her gloved hand was on her chest, “social standing to marry the prince than you.”

Marinette started laughing quietly, the sound only growing when the lady’s eyes widened.

“You really think that taking a ring would make you the queen? If you took the king’s crown does that make you the king as well?”

She laughed more before speaking. “This ring is the same as a king’s crown, it’s symbolic without carrying an actual purpose. It is the king that rules, not the crown.”

“Now with all due respect, unless you have some potions to shop for please leave my shop, I have customers to return to.”

Without taking a glance at the lady even once more, she called over the customer that was at the counter previously, writing down her order and telling her when it would be due. The lady stared at her for a while longer, before exiting the door with a huff and something that sounded like ‘Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!’, not that Marinette was listening.

Situations like these reminded her of the time Plagg- _Adrien_ (she still had some problems converting that in her mind) saved her from that drunken customer. Rude customers are always hard to deal with, especially if intoxicated or mentally unstable when you’re left staring and frightened. Thinking back, if Adrien hadn’t been there who knows what could have happened.

Back then, she hadn’t known him yet and he saved her, meaning he already cared for her in a way. Saving her at the time put him in more danger than she would have been in since it’s much easier to harm a small creature like a cat than a human yet he saved her anyway. It fastened her heartbeat, the idea of him protecting her and though she didn’t wish for anything that required rescuing happened she wished he was there standing next to her, protecting her.

How badly she missed him, she hadn’t admitted it to herself yet.

…

After Nino and Adrien left Marinette was too caught up with everything to tell Alya of the spells she used to get their jewellery to thump with their heartbeats. Frankly, she hadn’t thought Alya was going to care much about it, but after she mentioned how calm the thumping made her, she didn’t expect Alya to be so surprised to hear about it.

“Wait you can actually do that? Why didn’t you do it for me too?”

“This one took a huge bite out of my magical energy on its own, doing it twice would have killed me, to be honest. It’s not like I used a potion, I used a spell.”

“Too bad,” Alya pouted.

“But it was surprising to feel the thumping myself, honestly.”

Alya looked at her with an evident question in her eyes so Marinette continued speaking.

“I was saying the spell to create my heartbeat in his necklace and I had to use an object that was mine since the spell is made so that it can be done by a third party so you have to use something that would represent you as well.”

She left out the fact that touching him would have worked as well, but she was too shy to do it in front of so many viewers.

“What I wanted to happen was to create a heartbeat in the necklace, and that did happen but a response spell happened along the way.”

“What’s a response spell?” Alya asked.

“It happens with some spells. Magic belongs in nature, and just like it, it requires balance. Some spells automatically create another one, usually only destructible by annulling the first one.”

“Oh,” Alya said. “So in the end, your spell was created in response to his, so you both can feel it? How do you know it’s not just your heartbeat though?”

Marinette giggled. “It doesn’t sync up with mine, silly. Do you really think I’m stupid enough not to notice such a thing?”

“I mean, when you put it like that,” Alya teased.

“Alya!”

Her friend laughed and just like it always happened the past few times they saw each other, a silence filled the room.

“I miss him,” Alya said.

“I know,” Marinette said and mentally repeated Alya’s words.

_I miss him._

“Do you wonder if he misses you too?” Marinette asked after a couple of moments.

“He better,” Alya answered and it made Marinette laughed.

“I know he does,” Alya said again, her voice confident. “He said he would when we last spoke.”

“Ah, that’s right, you didn’t tell me anything about that conversation?” Marinette prodded.

“And I’m not going to, there was way too much crying for that conversation to even be mentioned.”

“You cried?” Marinette asked, her friend cried very rarely, she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d seen her crying.

“Pfft.”

“What?” Marinette asked, amused.

“Like I was the one crying,” Alya said and they both burst out in laughter.

…

Adrien glanced at the stars above, thoughts focused on the steady beating in his left hand. In the past ten days, he had gotten the habit of clutching the pendant tightly in his hold, enamoured with the idea of Marinette’s heart in his hand. He had done it so much that he got teasing glances from Nino without any words, not that it made him do it any less.

Whenever he held it, the image of Marinette giving it to him popped in his mind, comparing his eye colour to the colour of her father’s eyes. It didn’t take him long to figure out where the necklace was familiar from, after all, he had seen in on the portrait of her parents, around her mother’s neck. He thought about the fact that Marinette had given him something so precious, something she must have worn on a day-to-day basis made this piece worth more than his entire collection.

His mind occupied with Marinette, he tried to figure out the best way he could apologise for the things he’d been hiding from her, the things he should’ve said.

Yet, staring at the stars only kept reminding her of her hair and the comb he’d gotten her in it or the date where they shared their first kiss. He felt his heart speed up slightly at the thought and he wondered if she could feel it, wondered if she also found herself focused on his heartbeat.

On the blanket next to his, Nino stirred. “What’s got you up?”

He heard a gasp from one of the men lying around the long burnt-out fire. Even after spending a while with them, the soldiers were always surprised by the informal way Nino addressed him and Adrien found it vastly amusing.

“You know,” he answered and heard a chuckle from Nino. He knew Nino was asking it just to tease and he smiled in response.

“We’ll probably arrive by noon tomorrow, right?” he questioned.

“Most probably, yes. It’s not like we hurried because of your lady,” he could hear Nino wiggling his eyebrows despite not looking his way or being able to see in the dark.

“That’s good. We’ll hurry even more when we’re on our way back.”

“I knew that without you saying it.”

“Stop saying it like you don’t want it.”

He knew they were both grinning and he wondered how none of the awake soldiers hadn’t let out an annoyed huff or a groan.

…

When fifteen days passed Marinette decided she was going to spend her time preparing a gift for Adrien. She felt guilty about the way she fought with him and using a spell to silence him and though she was going to apologise she wanted to return his courting gifts with a gift on her own.

The problem aroused when she realised she had nothing to give to him that could even compare to the gifts she received so she concluded what she would give him would have to be hand-made from her.

And by hand-made, she meant to go about it without magic, both because using magic would make the process much quicker entirely ruining the fact that she wants to entertain herself while he’s gone and because making a gift while using magic seemed bogus.

She skimmed through the ideas in her mind, feeling sad that a good one wasn’t appearing. A couple of hours into her thinking, she found herself entering her parents’ former room, looking through their closet.

She found a vast collection of books, some that she recognised from when she was a child and some having her entertaining the thought of reading them one of these days, leaving herself a mental reminder. When she kept looking, she found a leather satchel, one that looked a lot like the one his father had that burned out in the fire.

The satchel was on a long string, one long enough that it could hang over the shoulder or across her father’s chest, to hang at his side. It was rectangular, and from how the leather was sawn it looked like a brown letter and Marinette quite liked it.

Would Adrien like something like this? She hadn’t seen a satchel on him before, but he did have large pockets in his coat which never seemed empty.

Before she even decided if Adrien would like it or not, a couple of ideas of stitches she could leave in the fabric filled her mind and she was running across the house, trying to find something to draw the designs on.

Later that night, she was sitting in front of a table filled with papers, each showing a different design or decoration and attempting to choose the very best one. She glanced out of the window and noticed it was dark already so she decided to leave the rest of her work for tomorrow, cleaning up after herself.

When she laid in bed that night, a question popped up in her head, left unanswered and she couldn’t shake it off.

Really, how did her days go without him before?

…

Adrien looked at her fondly across the table.

“I have something to tell you,” he said.

“Ooh,” she teased, “another secret?”

“Not quite,” he smiled at her antics. “It’s not really a secret.”

She furrowed her brows. “What is it?”

He smiled as he looked at her. “You’re cute.”

She blushed up to her ears and responded through an embarrassed giggle: “Is that it?”

He shook his head, only confusing her further.

She leaned her head to the side, eyes narrowing when she spoke: “Do you have to be a tease?”

“I don’t, but I enjoy it.”

“Do you know?” She huffed as she looked away.

“Hey, Mari.”

“Yes,” she said, still looking away.

“Look at me.”

Marinette rolled her eyes before turning to look at him again. There was a grin on his face and as much and she groaned with endearment.

“I love you,” he said through a whisper. The words rang through her head, the ringing growing louder and louder before she found herself standing up, sitting in her bed, panting.

It was a nice dream and she found herself wondering why she would wake up from such a dream so suddenly, with such a hard beating heart. It took her only a second to notice, what was terribly, terribly wrong.

Before she knew it, she was running across the town of Mii, in her nightgown and slippers, uncaring of the gazes she got and the people waking up from her loud footsteps in the dead of the night.

She knocked on Alya’s door loudly, loud enough to wake up the ten houses closest to Alya’s and when she didn’t hear a response she found herself shuffling along the door, trying to find Alya’s spare key since she couldn’t remember where Alya told her she kept it right after waking up.

When she finally remembered that Alya kept it under the flowerpot on her left window, the door opened, Alya standing in front of it in her robe with wide eyes.

“Marinette, what’s going on?” she asked, her voice laced with panic.

“Alya, Adrien, he-“

“Marinette please tell me what’s going on,” Alya asked and the way her voice clearly displayed how frightened she was only frightened Marinette more, leaving her a broken, whimpering mess on the floor of Alya’s doorstep.

She was crying and panicking so hard, she didn’t even realise Alya was leading her into her own house, wrapping her in a blanket, lighting a candle and sitting next to her.

“Sweetie, did you have another nightmare?”

When Marinette didn’t respond, Alya prodded at it more.

“Was it about the fire again?”

Marinette shook her head strongly, her face wet with tears.

“No, I-“she was panting, unable to say the words that were only going to hurt more once she said them out loud.

“Adrien, he-,” she took off her ring and placed it in Alya’s hand, letting out a loud sob.

“His heart, it’s not-it’s not beating.”


	8. I love you

Alya held the ring between her fingers, her heart panicking as she realised Marinette’s words. The ring stood still beneath her fingertips, the thumping sensation gone and the ring cold, as if it never held Adrien’s heartbeats in the first place.

She glanced at her best friend, who was crying silently, holding her knees and Alya held back the need to tell her to get her shoes off the sofa, which she usually would have. They’ve been sitting in silence for a while, Alya couldn’t tell how long exactly but the sky was beginning to lose all traces of darkness, the sun slowly coming out to greet them.

When Marinette looked up and into her eyes, with a wobbly lip and teary eyes, Alya let out the tears she’d been holding as well, pulling her friend in a tight embrace.

“They-they’re not dead aren’t they?” Marinette whispered, not wanting Alya to hear her words, not wanting to know the answer.

“I don’t know, honey. I really don’t.”

It was after another hour or so, when the sun shone brightly through her window as if to mock the state they were in that an idea popped in her mind. She pulled out of Marinette’s hands and began pacing around the sofa back and forth.

Marinette looked at her in wonder, her eyes dry after she ran out of tears, but the long stains under her eyes reminiscent of their spilling.

“The ring,” Alya said in the middle of thinking and it only made Marinette’s face expression morph into one of confusion.

“That spell you cast, you said this one was only a response spell didn’t you?”

“I did,” Marinette answered, her expression relaxing. Her posture showed she was completely focused on Alya, on what she could say and if her face said anything, it said she was hopeful, if only a little.

“You said a response spell was natural, created itself after a regular spell?”

Marinette’s eyes widened in realisation as she nodded.

“Meaning you don’t control how long it lasts?”

If it was somehow possible to capture something in front of her, even only once in life, Alya would capture the smile Marinette’s face displayed after she heard those words.

“No, nature does. I made the spell last a month, and it’s been a little over fifteen days, hasn’t it? Maybe I should visit the library, try to find some sort of explanation about response spells in general, there isn’t much that Maman taught me.”

Marinette was already standing up, her stance confident and her eyes filled with determination. Alya grabbed her shoulders and stopped her heading towards the door, their eyes meeting.

“We’re not going to believe either of them is dead until we get some sort of notice okay?”

Marinette nodded her head a couple of times before saying: “Okay,” and letting Alya hug her once more.

“Also,” Alya said and Marinette hummed in question.

“The library doesn’t open for another hour,” she chuckled and Marinette giggled along.

…

After spending another hour at Alya’s place and convincing her not to go to the library with her, knowing exactly how hectic Alya’s days became if she missed even a day of newspaper work she went back to her cottage. She wrote an apology to all the customers who could pick up their orders on that day, saying the shop would be open tomorrow and bee-lined towards the library.

Halfway there, she realised she’d forgotten her library card, but was glad the librarian knew her fairly well, not only from public school but from her frequent visits, ones dedicated to finding a particular spell and some to fuel her guilty pleasure – reading romantic novels. Not that she’d read one recently, somehow she’d forgotten all about her little habit after a certain blond showed up in her life.

When she arrived there, the librarian was immersed in what looked like a serious discussion with a tall blonde man, though it didn’t take long for Marinette to realise that it wasn’t quite that.

“I told you so,” the short librarian said, pulling out an envelope with a grin.

“You did _not_ keep that paper from 3rd grade, are you kidding me?” the blonde man answered and only then Marinette realised that the man talking to her old classmate was also an old classmate.

“I certainly did, I made a bet that the two of you would be courting and _somebody_ owns me a 100 lymos now, don’t ya?”

“Fine, fine I’ll give you your 100 lymos but you don’t get the point, _she’s_ courting me! The woman isn’t supposed to be courting the man!”

“Well, that’s an awfully sexist approach, don’t you think?” cut through their discussion, the two of them looking at her only noticing she entered the room then.

“Greetings, Kim, Max,” Marinette grinned.

“Hey, Marinette,” Kim held out his hand and she took it, “We haven’t seen each other since high school, huh?”

“That’s right. You’ve gotten taller,” she commented.

“And you are even closer to the ground, huh,” he teased and only laughed when Max pushed him behind him and greeted Marinette from behind the counter.

“What can I do for you today?” Max asked with a polite smile, ignoring Kim’s childish behaviour behind him, after all, he knew all the grimace the immature man did frequently behind his back, Marinette’s giggles making it obvious.

“Do you have a book about response spells?”

“Response spells?” Max’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Oh, the great Max, amazing memory knows every book he has doesn’t know what a response spell is?” Kim teased, earning a sharp elbow in his stomach from Max.

“I know what they are, but there was never enough research done on it for an entire book to be written.”

Max opened the large book standing on his counter, searching through the pages and heading towards what Marinette knew was the wizard shelf, motioning for the other two to follow.

He got out a few books by himself, using Kim to get out some of the higher shelves stating “Even idiots like him are useful sometimes, albeit rarely.” He placed those on a circular table, the one Marinette preferred to read at, even Marinette was sometimes amazed by his astounding memory, but this was just another one of those common occurrences.

“These are books that are about wizardship in general; they should hold some information on response spells though not a lot. I can help you look through them later, after I get my work done here.”

“Oh, there’s no need, thank you, Max.”

“No problem. If you find something useful, feel free to take it home, you can return it any time.”

“Oh, but I forgot to bring my card.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll remember.”

“Yeah, Marinette. Max remembers _everything_ ,” Kim waved the envelope from before in front of Max’s face, earning an annoyed huff from Max and a loud giggle from Marinette.

When the two disappeared from her sight, Marinette looked down at the titles of the books laying in front of her; ‘ _Wizarship for beginners_ ’, ‘ _Everything you need to know about magic_ ’, ‘ _What being a wizard requires_ ’, ‘ _The things you need to learn before casting a spell_ ’, ‘ _A parenting guide: What your baby wizard needs to learn_ ’ and so on. There were about twenty different books lying in front of her and Marinette would have to flick through each of them in hopes of finding something, anything that could give her hope. She had to get to reading already.

…

After she spent a couple of hours looking through some of the books, either not finding anything and getting all bummed our finding something getting excited and then only finding the information she already knew, she finally found something useful in a book called ‘ _What being a wizard teaches you_ ’ written by a famous wizard.

The title of the page where she’d stopped was ‘ _When a spell works, but then it doesn’t_ ’ and Marinette began reading it immediately.

_Sometimes, when a spell works out, things that you haven’t spelled to happen, happen. Whether they are similar to the spell you’ve cast or the direct opposite, even if they seem different, don’t be alarmed- they are precisely common. These incidents are what people call ‘The nature of magic’ or response spells._

_You see, when you cast a spell, you mess with nature’s balance, you take something and turn it into something it wasn’t before – you change things. And although nature rarely responds, sometimes it does._

_Say, you’ve cast a spell to change the colour of a flower planted in a flower field. The spell happens, the colour of the flower changes, but suddenly the flowers standing next to it are also that colour or perhaps even the whole field, even as you are certain that you only used a spell that would change only one flower._

_Or for example, you use a spell that makes your nails longer on your left hand, but it also happens on your right hand and again, you’ve only used a spell that would do it on one hand._

_These instances are what you would call response spells and unfortunately cannot be undone without undoing the original spell. If a response spell is something you didn’t wish to happen, try stopping the original one and then doing it again, you may not get the same effect. Do also check to see if the spell you’ve been using is a correct one._

_Even if a response spell is something you haven’t wished for, don’t fret too much on its existence. From my research, I’ve concluded that on time-limited spells, response spells always last between half the time of an original spell and the full time of an original spell. Response spells never last longer than the original._

_When it comes to permanent spells, the response spells are also permanent, if you choose not to remove the original spell. Although response spells fall under the ‘The nature of magic’ name, I consider them more of a ‘The hiccups of nature’ as you can use a single spell multiple times and only get a response spell one out of ten times – they are that uncommon._

Marinette stopped her reading then, immediately leaving the library with the book (under Max’s permission, of course) and heading to tell Alya the good news.

…

Marinette let the new knowledge about response spells calm her, ignoring the fear underneath her peaceful thoughts knowing she had reasonable ground to believe Adrien was safe and alive.

It didn’t stop the fear from crawling to the surface at night, entering her dreams and turning them into nightmares. It became common to wake up in the middle of crying or to wake up and begin crying because Marinette knew, nothing would stop her fear but seeing Adrien unscathed, safe.

Every time she had a nightmare, it was always somebody telling her Adrien passed away or even seeing him die herself, as unrealistic as it was and she always woke up in the middle of them and was unable to fall asleep right after. What would calm her down a little was lighting a candle, opening the book and reading the page again as if she didn’t know it word for word.

And after calming herself down by reading it, unable to fall asleep again she’d begin thinking, trying to ignore the fear she’s been holding back. The only problem with ignoring that fear only spiked another.

After learning of Adrien’s role and who he was, Marinette couldn’t help but dread the thought of becoming his wife. Yes, she enjoyed the thought of being Adrien’s wife and having her own little family with him, she’d dreamt of it many times before she began having nightmares. She wanted to be Adrien’s wife, she really did. She just didn’t want to be the _prince’s_ wife, or worse – _the king’s_.

In her mind, there was no way being a wizard-witch-queen was acceptable, either by the people or by the royalty and nobility. Even if she was only courting Adrien right now (not that they’ve established anything after their fight) it meant having to meet the king and how could that go well with her being who she was?

Thinking of the fact that all her customers knew she was being courted by Adrien, the king must have known already, he must already know who she is and he already must be unapproving of their courtship. Many times, she’d thought of the possibility of being invited to the castle by the king himself only to be told to reject Adrien.

Not only did she fear the king, she also feared the opinion of the royalty and nobility staying at the castle that would know her, but may not learn to respect her. And even if they accept her as queen, she still wouldn’t fit in with them, she didn’t know proper behaviour or etiquette of nobility, let alone one of a queen – of royalty.

The surname of the family that was responsible for the death of her parents still existed at the castle as well, active in their service to the king as nobility. Though they weren’t the direct people that were responsible, they were still raised by them, possibly still believed in the old-fashioned concept against wizards, witches and the like. Would she have to respect them as well?

She didn’t think of herself capable of standing as queen no matter how much she wanted to convince herself. Yet a small part of her knew, she’d never live through the pain of somebody else standing in her place, next to her beloved.

…

Miss Hansen arrived at her place a couple of days later, holding her wallet in her hand and a tight smile on her face.

“Are you ready to head out?“ Miss Hansen asked, looking at Marinette.

Marinette walked towards her from the counter and spread her arms to engulf her in a hug.

“It doesn't get any less difficult as time passes by, huh?“ her quiet voice whispered into Marinette's ear and by the sound of it, Marinette knew she was crying.

“No, it really doesn't,“ Marinette answered, her own eyes glistened over.

After a couple of seconds of holding her close, they headed out as soon as Marinette covered herself with her black coat, it was getting colder outside so she found herself even putting on the red hood over her head.

As they walked on the terracotta streets, Miss Hansen held Marinette's elbow, excusing it for comfort when they both knew she was getting colder and needed leverage in order to balance herself on her unsteady feet. Not that she would admit it.

While they walked Miss Hansen asked the typical question, after all, this trip was a yearly routine, something they always did together. “Daisies?”

Marinette hummed in confirmation, only to ask the question she always asked in return. “Freesias?”

“Yellow freesias,” Miss Hansen smiled.

When they arrived at the gardener’s, the old man greeted them with the same tight smile he gave them last year and the years before. The room felt cold even with the fireplace evidently running, maybe it was the sad gaze the gardener had over them that made it feel that way, or the harsh reality of doing this every year.

“The 26th, huh?” he asked after they exchanged greetings.

“The same as always,” Marinette answered when the grip Miss Hansen had on her elbow grow stronger, a silent request for her to speak.

They gave the gardener their orders, he told them the time to pick them up and they headed outside again. Usually, they would go to another place right after, to pick up candles, but as Miss Hansen’s steps grew heavier, Marinette turned them in the opposite direction.

Before Miss Hansen could say anything she spoke: “I’ll pick them up by myself tomorrow, you should rest.”

“Oh dear Marinette, you’re so sweet,” Miss Hansen smiled genuinely.

“But you should head to my place, I can give you a nice cup of camomile tea with a drop of potion to relax your muscles, hmm?”

“I couldn’t say no to that offer,” Miss Hansen smiled.

They walked in silence for a couple more seconds, before Miss Hansen grinned.

“While you’re at it could you give me a foot massage?”

Marinette snorted at her tone: “Gladly.”

…

Aside from the nightmares, what often appeared in her mind at night time was the fantasy of Adrien coming back. Ever since the ring incident, she’d admitted to herself how much she wants to see him - safe and sound - and how much she misses him.

She dreamed of extravagant encounters with him when he comes back, the moment they lay their eyes on each other exaggerated and they seem to always run into each other’s arms dramatically, as if taken out from one of those romantic novels she used to read.

Marinette dreamed of many different encounters on how they see each other again, some more realistic some far from it, but they always, _always_ ran into each other’s arms like they haven’t seen each other in years.

What she doesn’t expect the actual encounter to be is the direct opposite, completely anticlimactic.

Alya and Marinette were sitting in her cottage, munching on cookies, talking about weird customers they’ve gotten recently. She told her about the old man that buys the newspaper every day, direct from the printing factory because ‘the newspaper is fresher that way’ refusing to listen to Alya when she explains to him that the same newspaper is printed for the first half of the day.

After they laughed at the story, Marinette was telling her about the lunatic that keeps on coming to the shop, saying he wants a potion but never explaining which one and asking where her cat was, demanding to pet her. Safe to say, Tikki could smell the man whenever he came and made sure to stay upstairs, away from his prodding eyes.

Just when she was in the middle of talking, a soft knock came to her door and Marinette got up, the usual line of telling customers it was her break and if they could please wait for a couple of minutes already on her tongue. She didn’t think much on the fact that it was the back door that was getting knocked on and she definitely didn’t expect a familiar pair of green eyes to meet hers.

Adrien was smiling as soon as he met her eyes and she stared at him incredulously, not sure whether she was dreaming or not.

“Hi,” she said after a minute or so of staring and he smiled at her, releasing a fond puff of breath.

“Hi to you too,” he smiled and greeted Alya as well.

“If you’re here where’s Nino?”

“Headed right towards your place,” Adrien smiled and Alya all but ran upstairs. Thirty seconds later, she was running downstairs in her fox form, faster than Marinette had ever seen her.

They sat down at the table, awkward silence between them, both too nervous and emotion-filled to break the ice.

“How come you’re early?” Marinette asked and she knew it was a stupid conversation starter. She was curious though, as it hadn’t been a month yet but her hands were shaking in her lap from the fear that finally left her body and ignoring it wasn’t going to do her any good.

“Had a special lady I wanted to see as soon as possible,” Adrien smirked and kneeled in front of her on the floor, taking her hands into his.

Marinette smiled but her eyes were already glistened over, her bottom lip wobbly. After her hands were forced to be still by the warmth that were Adrien’s she calmed a little and cupped his face into both her hands.

“My ring stopped thumping,” she said and Adrien’s eyebrows rose in question, “I’ll explain later.”

“I thought-, I thought you were dead,” she cried while she caressed the area under his eyes with her thumbs.

“I was so scared, I- “she trailed off, tears falling down her cheeks and Adrien sat down on the floor, pulling her to his lap. She sat down, her legs wrapped around Adrien and her face rucked in his chest.

His left hand wrapped around her waist and he held her head with his right one, softly combing her loose hair with his long fingers. Marinette kept crying and after a minute, he took her by the shoulders and leaned her back to have her look at him.

“I’m okay,” he smiled and she grimaced as more tears fell down her face. The smile on his face stayed unmoving, and he took her hand into his and pressed it against his chest.

Marinette’s tears stopped, her focus shifted on her hand and when she felt his heartbeat under her hand, she let out a shaky breath; her eyes brimmed with tears once more.

“I’m sorry, I’m being pathetic,” she tried to stand up, but Adrien pulled her right back into his embrace again. She gasped at the motion but didn’t mind nuzzling into his chest, ignoring the wet stain her tears left behind. When Marinette calmed down in his hold, he began combing through her hair once more.

“I’ve missed you dearly,” he said and she stayed unmoving in his hold.

“I’ve missed you too,” she sniffed, “I’ve missed you a lot.”

“Don’t cry, princess,” he said.

She smiled at the nickname, but chose not to point it out. When she looked up at Adrien, she noticed he was still wearing the necklace she gave him, her mother’s old necklace and that made her smile.

She stared at it for a second longer, her eyes drooping and her breathing growing slower. She hadn’t noticed she was falling asleep and if Adrien did he didn’t say anything. Engulfed in the warmth she dreamed of feeling for the past few weeks, she let herself relax.

Right before the darkness consumed her she thought she could hear Adrien mumble ‘I love you’ into her ear, but she was far too gone to note the words’ presence.

…

For the first time since she was a child, Marinette woke up in someone’s embrace. There were strong arms around her waist and a hard chest against her face and even as she was in an uncomfortable position, she hadn’t slept so peacefully in days, weeks almost.

She didn’t dwell on the fact that the first night she has without a nightmare is in Adrien’s arms so she leans back and looks up at him. “Sorry, I fell asleep.”

“It’s no problem, you looked like you could use it.”

“What time is it?” she rubbed her eye with her hand, trying to make herself wake up and ignored how Adrien cooed at her.

“Close to noon and time for me to go,” Adrien answered.

“Don’t go,” she pouted, still half asleep and Adrien leaned towards her, their forehead touching.

Adrien cooed at her behaviour: “I’m sorry, princess. Nino and I were able to be quicker than the troops for about two hours but since you fell asleep it’s time for me to go, I’ll stop by tomorrow, okay?”

She nodded her head with a pout, but when he made a motion to remove her from his lap, she placed a hand on his shoulder holding her back.

“I’m sorry, my lady, I really have to go, a prince can’t arrive after his troops.”

Marinette nodded her head but held him strongly by the shoulder.

“Adrien?” she pouted again and Adrien wondered if she was still half asleep.

“Yeah?” Adrien smiled fondly.

“Kiss me,” she said, making Adrien’s eyebrow raise but it didn’t stop him from leaning in and taking her lips into his own. Their lips moved slowly, carefully as if trying to remember what the other tasted like, felt like.

When he felt Marinette smile against his lips, he pulled back and grinned. When he noticed the fierce blush on her cheeks, he chose not to comment on it, deciding to tease her tomorrow.

When they got up from their uncomfortable position, Marinette almost fell down and he caught her with his arms. They stayed like that for a second and Marinette placed her right hand on his cheek.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you too, princess. So much.”

“That’s good,” she smiled as he leaned in and pecked her lips once, twice, thrice.

When they said goodbye at the doorstep their gazes and touches lingered, afraid to say goodbye. As he climbed his white horse, she waved at him, ignoring the views the passersby were giving them. And as Adrien turned his back to her and she watched his figure disappear from sight, she couldn’t help but think she was glad to have him back.


	9. Treasure that feeling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not posting for so long!

As the sun rose the following day, Marinette was writing down the notice she wrote every single year around this time. She placed it on the door, informing her customers that she would be taking a week-long break starting in a couple of days.

But for the first time in years, the break was at the back of her mind as Adrien filled its front.

_I’ll stop by tomorrow._

She smiled at the thought and only then did she remember the promise they’ve made before he headed to Sierma. Because of his quick farewell – not a farewell actually, he came back in one piece, she had to keep reminding the irrational fear that still lived inside of her – they were unable to properly talk about the argument they’ve had days prior.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she mentally slapped her forehead, the reason Adrien immediately showed up at her cottage was that he intended to speak about it, just like they promised, yet like a fool, she fell asleep right in his lap.

It was the calmest nap she’s had in weeks, if Adrien hadn’t woken her up she probably would have slept until morning since she finally felt the comfort her bed hasn’t been able to provide lately, yet she can’t help but feel guilty.

Considering their conversation Adrien probably thought a lot about what he could say to her and she didn’t think twice about the fact that they haven’t talked about it, caught in the everlasting loop of missing him. They also can’t dance around the subject for too long, things like this needed to be discussed properly and if they ignored it, it would probably blow up at an unexpected point.

When it came to the actual conversation, she didn’t want to think about it too much. She knew she definitely had to apologise for using a spell on him out of anger, but the things he had to say, or rather, ask were too much.

Marinette already forgave him for not telling her he was Plagg or the prince, though she wouldn’t mind an apology. What scared her most was talking about courting and marriage. Of course, they would talk about continuing or not continuing their courtship and of course, she wanted to be with Adrien. But considering how public their relationship has become (she still gets asked if she’s courting the prince at least three times a day) they were bound to talk about their future – their marriage.

Marrying a guy who works at a castle hadn’t sounded bad, but marrying a prince whose coronation was a little bit over a year away was more than scary. As the past weeks unfolded, the idea that she was incapable of becoming queen only stood firmer in her mind and she believed it completely. How could she, a mere witch from a town, marry the kingdom’s prince? The _king_?

When she heard the bell ring and recognised the face of the woodshop clerk coming to get his Healing Salve she was grateful to get a distraction and until her break, she didn’t spare a minute thinking about the conversation that was most likely happening tonight.

…

When Marinette heard a knock on her door at 7 p.m. she practically ran to it, a wide grin already on her face.

There were a couple of stars in the sky which was slowly darkening, something she gazed at lovingly whenever she was home by herself, yet was too occupied to notice with the sight of a certain guy in front of her.

His grin matched hers perfectly and they exchanged quick greetings before she ushered him inside, already noticing a couple of curious glances towards them.

As soon as Adrien was inside she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and all but ran to the shop’s behind with reddened cheeks. Adrien huffed an amused breath, a laugh perhaps, and followed her after taking his coat off.

When he entered the second door, he was greeted by the fragrance of cookies and hot chocolate. Marinette smiled happily at him from where she was seated at the table, motioning for him to sit down.

As soon as he sat down he glanced at the tray filled with cookies and Marinette silently pushed it towards him. His eyes widened but he accepted the offer, immediately stuffing his cheeks in the way his father would have reprimanded him for back when he was younger.

Marinette giggled as soon as she saw what he did and he made a dramatic face saying. “What?” with his mouth still full. The sound didn’t sound like he intended it to at all, but it made Marinette’s giggles louden and he began laughing with her, almost choking.

It was as she tapped him on the back that he realised how different his behaviour is when he’s with her and he wondered whether he only shows his true self in front of her, though he didn’t ponder over it for too long.

After her giggling quieted and he swallowed, he made sure to praise her baking and in response he got an adorable blush filling her cheeks. When she made a move to cover her face with her hands he grabbed both of them while she babbled incoherent sounds.

“What are you blushing over, princess? Not so bold today are you?” As soon as those words left Adrien’s mouth, Marinette’s eyes widened and her blathers got even less understandable. Eventually, she managed to free her hands, hiding her impossibly reddening cheeks.

“I just woke up, it was an-“, she mumbled into her hands.

“You do realise you have to remove your hands for me to understand you?” Adrien chuckled, taking pleasure in the sight of her.

“It was – I just,” she groaned, unable to arrange a complete sentence.

“It’s alright, I can wait,” he grinned toothily at her, making her roll her eyes and huff out a quiet ‘Stop’.

“I had just woken up and you were there and I hadn’t seen you in a long time, it was just an instinct reaction-” she rambled.

“Oh so as soon as you wake up you wish to lay your lips on mine?”

She smacked him on the shoulder.

“The minute you see me you want to-“

“Shut up!”

…

Talking to Adrien made Marinette forget how to worry. It was easy resting her head on his shoulder and laying together on her loveseat (which Adrien used as a pun at least twenty times since they lied on). However, as soon as Adrien mentioned it, her heart rate quickened and her palms grew sweaty.

“I promised you a conversation before I left, didn't I?”

The room quieted and Marinette sighed as she nodded her head. Adrien took a couple of seconds to speak, and Marinette moved his hand from around her shoulder to her waist and placed her own on top of it. She knew without looking that he was grinning, though she admitted to herself that a small smile – much larger, really – was showing up on her face as well.

“First, I would like to apologize. I should have told you I was a prince long ago, before I began to court you,” she looked at him, “The fact that I was a shapeshifter should have been mentioned even sooner, too.”

“I should have told you both of those things before we started courting, you should have known both of those things before you agreed and I knew that.”

“I was planning on telling you when I asked to court you but I just, I just,” he sighed, “chickened out .”

“I was scared of what you were going to say to the cat thing, I thought you could possibly reject me, which I would have respected, but, still I didn’t want that to happen.”

“What I failed to consider back then, was that me being a prince made a much larger risk of you rejecting me than me being a shapeshifter did.”

After his words died out he looked back at her and tears were staining her cheeks. He shifted their positions so they were sitting directly across from one another with their legs folded and he took her hands in his. When he looked at her hands, he saw the ladybug ring, which in a sense, was a rejection of its own.

As his thumb caressed her hand he spoke again: “I’m sorry, really sorry. And I’m also thankful that today and yesterday you didn’t mention this and that you’ve given me time to think, even though I don’t deserve it.”

Marinette’s heart crumbled when he said those words, because while she was worrying about her future with Adrien as a prince and whether she wishes such a life upon herself, Adrien thought she was doing it out of consideration for him and was thankful for it.

“I hate this, but I do have to ask you,” he looked away from her hands into her eyes, “do you still feel the same way you did as we fought? Do you still wish-“, he sighed painfully, “not to court me?”

Her eyes glistened and before a single tear could spill, Adrien cupped both her cheeks and said: “There’s no reason for you to feel sad, princess. I love you so much, and no matter which way you feel I will respect it.”

She nodded her head a couple of times and mumbled an ‘I don’t know’.

He tilted his head and she could see the forming of a grin on his face, though he was doing his best to hide it. “You don’t know?”

She couldn’t help but grin, but her heart still hurt. “I know I want to court _you_ , Adrien. I know I want to listen to your voice every day and hear you say princess to me for the rest of my life. I want to feel your warmth every day and I want to tell you every single funny and sad story for my life. I also want you to be comfortable to shift next to me and to feel that in both of your forms I love you, more than anything, but, I don’t know if I want to be the prince’s bride.”

He sighed, “The king’s bride.”

She nodded. “I’m from a town, Adrien. I don’t know anything about being a royal or acting like one. And even if I was to spend months at the castle to learn that, I can never learn not to be a witch or a wizard. I was born like that and it is one of the things I carry with myself every day and I don’t want to quit it, ever. And I don’t want to present myself as something I’m not in front of royalty, nobility, whatever. I don’t want to be familiar with the family who killed mine and pretend they’re not related for the monsters responsible for ma parents’ death.”

“I can understand that. Still, I want you to know that the fact that you’re a witch doesn’t bother me slightly and that I can promise you that I can get everyone in the castle to feel that way, as well.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Adrien.”

“Then I’ll just kick them out,” he said with a grin and she immediately started laughing.

“What can I say, you don’t like my princess I don’t like you,” she fell in his lap from laughing and he chuckled along with her.

“I do owe you an apology, too.”

“Hm?”

“I shouldn’t have used a spell on you.”

“Well, you were angry and I violated your privacy, I understood it.”

“Yes, but that isn’t an excuse, and it isn’t a way to handle conflict. You have the right to speak and say why you did what you did and I took it away, even though it wasn’t mine to take. I want to tell you that I will do my best to stop myself from doing so in the future.”

Adrien’s eyebrows raised and his voice was smug when he spoke: “In the future, huh?”

She smiled, but her eyebrows furrowed quickly. “Another thing that worries me is the shop. I want to continue its work because it provides potions on a low price to the town’s people, but I know if I marry you I would have to live at the castle and running this wouldn’t be my priority. I want it to exist, both for the people who shop here and as continuing my parents’ legacy.”

“I can see why that is a problem, but we could always hire somebody to run it for you and for you to supervise from time to time. Depending on your day-to-day duties at the castle, you could always ride down here and do your thing, as long as my dad doesn’t know.”

The way Adrien said ‘we’ in such a casual way and how much she liked it made her blush and she quickly hid her face in his chest before he could see it.” Before she stupidly started imagining a future of their marriage and kids, which would make Marinette blush more, she continued their conversation.

“Don’t throw such quick solutions at me, I can’t decide.”

Adrien pushed her off his chest and looked at her, “What are you blushing for? Adorable.”

She squealed and he pecked her lips quickly, earning another one.

“I want you to court me, Adrien, and maybe” – she looked away – “marry you “– she looked back – “but I don’t know whether I want to be queen.”

He stayed silent for a couple of moments.

“How about this – we tell my dad that we’re courting, because he heard it because of the whole commotion when we were leaving for Fea and has been nagging since and I don’t want him to start a courting process himself because you haven’t decided – but in reality, I will give you time to decide and whenever you made that decision you can tell me and I will respect that, okay?”

“What did I do to deserve you?” she pouted.

“What did I do to deserve _you_?” he answered.

“I think I’m the one who should be saying that, this beautiful, down to earth, sweet…“

“Oh my God, Adrien, stop right now,” she tried to clamp his mouth shut as he kept pushing her hands away.

“…gorgeous, wonderful, amazing…“

She finally clamped his mouth shut, but he was lying down and she was on top of him.

“You know princess, if you had those kinds of intentions all along, you could have said so and I would have performed right away.”

She got off quickly and stammered something even she couldn’t understand and ran off. He chuckled and ran after her, yelling just another sentence that would make her blush.

…

When Adrien was leaving that night, Marinette both felt relieved and anxious, after all, there was still something she wanted to ask him. As if sensing her hesitance, Adrien leaned on the door and looked at her softly, patiently waiting.

“Later this week, on the 26th, I was wondering if you’d follow me and Miss Hansen to my parents’ and her husband’s resting place.”

Adrien’s face fell and he took her face in both his hands; “Of course I would, Mari, I’m honoured you would ask.”

Marinette sighed in relief and leaned her head on his chest.

After a couple of moments, Adrien realised something: “Wait wasn’t the Act of equality completed on the 27th?”

“That’s true, that’s the day people remember and remind themselves of the Act, however, the Act of equality was completed the day after the fire, when that noble family was executed for framing the protesters.”

“I'm sorry, I didn’t know that.”

“Most people don’t. Think about the fact that you’re well educated and taught everything about the kingdom, if you don’t know this fact, who does? Myself, Miss Hansen and those sad enough to carry the memory of a lost close one.”

“That’s quite sad. You know being close to you gives me an insight of the things going on in my kingdom and I want you to know, whether or not you marry me I’ll do my best to better things that need to be better.”

Marinette smiled to herself and hugged him again, wondering for a millionth time if she was capable enough of being queen.

…

Marinette carried a basket in her arms in which were two different flower bouquets: one yellow freesias, the other solely daisies. On her hip was a leather water bottle whose string went across her chest and over her back. Her usual loose hair was tied in a tight bun, her clothes were completely black and her expression was solemn.

She was locked in place by the kitchen counter, staring at the picture of her parents on the wall, since this was the only day of the year she allowed herself to look at them, too long and after a couple of minutes of longing, to cry.

A knock on her door released her out of the stupor and she walks to it speedily and the door opens to reveal an unfamiliar person. Directly in front of her stood a woman with long black curly hair held back by a bow on the back of her head. She was dressed in a navy dress with a blue apron over it. Her hands stood formally together in front of her hips and her fingers were blistered. It was clear that she was a maid of sorts, yet it was Marinette’s first time seeing her and she remembered every customer.

The woman was beautiful, her cheekbones high and her eyes a glistening green. There wasn’t a single wrinkle or flaw on her face and her face was the most beautiful shade of pale. If she wasn’t dressed the way she was, Marinette would be certain she was royalty or nobility, at least.

“I’m sorry, we’re closed this week, you can come on Monday if you need anything.”

The beautiful woman only stared back at her and Marinette was surprised when her smooth face shifted and a vein popped out of her forehead as she scoffed. Taken aback, Marinette’s eyes widened and she took a step back subconsciously.

“Excuse me?”

There were wrinkles between her eyebrows, a scrunch on her nose and her lips disappeared as she spoke; “It’s you isn’t it?” Her voice was unbearably squeaky and her tone was unnecessarily rude. However, Marinette knew right away what this woman was aiming at, yet she hoped she was wrong.

“Who?”

“It’s you, the witch being courted by the prince, isn’t it?” And there it was, another woman banging on her door about being Adrien’s fiancé, like she needed that today.

“I do not see how that is any of your business, if you’ll excuse me,” Marinette made a move to close the door but the woman quickly stopped her.

“Earned some confidence now that the prince’s courting you?” her voice raised, “Don’t forget the prince just needs a piece of meat before he gets coronated, you mean nothing to him.”

Marinette’s blood boiled, but she didn’t let it get to her too much. Today was the day that she honoured her parents’ death, not the day that she fought another one of the prince’s fans. Before she could say anything back, Miss Hansen’s voice came in.

“Are we ready to head out, dear?” she walked towards them, stopping behind the unnamed woman.

“Just a second Miss Hansen, I need to lock the door and Adrien has yet to arrive.”

Marinette turned around to lock the door and when she turned around, the woman was gone. She sighed,

 _Ready to bother me when Adrien’s not here and yet escaping as soon as she knows he’ll come_.

Miss Hansen looked at her and in what wasn’t an uncomfortable silence they waited for Adrien. When he arrived, he was dressed modestly with his face behind a hood and took the basket out of Marinette’s hands. Together, they walked slowly, Miss Hansen holding Marinette’s elbow and Adrien always two steps behind them.

…

The three of them walked below an arc that said: _Here lie the protesters whose lives got endangered because of their ability to perform magic. Their sacrifices for the lives of future magic holders shall always be remembered. Ad meliora vertamur._

When they arrived at the cemetery, Marinette and Miss Hansen were greeted by few familiar faces they usually saw on that date and only greeted them with a silent hug, no words exchanged. After all, on this day lived a different kind of language, only their eyes told stories.

Marinette walked Miss Hansen to her husband’s grave and took the freesias from the basket Adrien was carrying. She switched the flowers with those in the vase that stood on top of the grave and poured some water from her water bottle inside. Then, she tapped her shoulder comfortingly and walked to her parents’ grave.

Before she even looked at it her eyes were teary and she kneeled directly in front of their engraved names. Adrien moved silently by her side, to do exactly what she did for Miss Hansen a moment earlier.

_Maman, Papa I wish you were here with me._

Adrien took off his hood, kneeled next to her and bowed his head slightly. He interlaced their fingers and squeezed her hand comfortingly and with that, Marinette let her first tears fall.

_I’ve met someone wonderful, Maman, but he brings a lot of difficult choices along with himself. The thought of being somebody of importance to the country frightens me, I don’t know if I’m capable of it._

_I wish there was a way I could as you what I can do, a way for you to tell me I’m doing okay. But, as this isn’t possible I promise to you again, I’ll forever hold your magic with me, both your potions papa and your spells Maman._

_I’ve given the necklace Papa gave to you to the man next to me, he has yet to take it off. The things that used to frighten me around others completely disappear around him and I wished many times that my future with him could be easier, simpler._

_There’s only one thing I do not doubt currently and that is that what I feel for him is what you two once felt towards each other and I wish to treasure that feeling, I’ve lost the two of you and I can’t bear losing him._

…

Miss Hansen headed home with somebody before the two of them, so Adrien walked Marinette home, holding onto her every step of the way. He stayed silent the whole way back and she couldn’t help but wonder how he always knew exactly what she needed without him having to ask, without her having to say.

She looked up at the sky, it wasn’t dark yet the sun was covered with white clouds. Another tear fell out of her eye and Adrien’s hold tightened. After all these years, the date was still hard and she wondered for how long it would stay that way.

Would she come there by herself in ten, twenty years and cry? If so, would Adrien be there again? Thinking about doing this all over again next year without the silent support Adrien gave her scared her immensely and she was crying again, but this time it was over being alone again.

Because her footsteps stopped, Adrien stood in front of her and hugged her face tightly to his chest. When she calmed down, she thanked him and he touched her again when he said he’d do it any time she needed it.

When they arrived, Marinette brought Adrien in for tea and madeleines (which she always made in the memory of her mother). They talked sweetly, about some of Marinette’s childhood memories and those told to her by other adults. Adrien held her hand across the table and listened to her every word.

As Adrien was leaving, Marinette pulled him down by the chin, kissed his chin and whispered:

“I’ll marry you.”


End file.
